In 1999, the worst school shooting in American history took place at Columbine high school. Twelve students and one teacher were killed. The first student who got shot and killed was Rachel Joy Scott. Last week, a very powerful assembly inspired by Rachel came to Altoona.

After the events took place, Rachel’s father was sitting in her room looking at her stuff, reminiscing, and he came across two papers. One was an essay that Rachel wrote, titled “My Ethics, My Codes of Life.” 

In Rachel’s essay, she challenges the reader to five things. She asks the reader to look for the best in others, dream big, choose positive influences, speak with kindness and start a chain reaction.

Rachel befriended people who had special needs, people who were new and people who were picked on a lot. One of the people who spoke about Rachel after she died was her friend, Adam, whose life she saved without knowing it. He had planned on taking his life and was being picked on by two bigger kids. Rachel stepped between him and the kids, and afterwards befriended Adam.

“He [Adam] was very powerful and joyous in talking about Rachel,” assembly host Mark said.

When asked what advice Mark would give to teenagers after speaking for Rachel’s challenge he said, “Be kind to each other and treat each other with respect, like human beings.”

According to Principal Andrew Neely, over 100 students are involved with the Friends of Rachel program.

For the rest of the year, the club has planned on doing high-five Fridays, where students who are involved in the club will stand in the hallways and give people who are passing by high fives. They also plan on greeting people in the mornings, and they are working on an assembly for later on in the year.

“We wanted to join this organization because we just really liked the general idea of it, and it has a lot to deal with inclusion,” club member Cohrina Harris said.

Friends of Rachel was created because of Rachel’s inspiring determination to help everyone and to make everyone happy. The purpose of this club is to help everyone to try and be kinder to their peers and to “start a chain reaction,” which was one of Rachel’s requests from her readers.

“Be as nice as you can to other people, you don’t know how much it means to them,” Friends of Rachel club member Dalton Keller said.