Rachel’s lessons to have lasting effect in Lynn kids

LYNN – “Rachel’s Challenge,” a program all students at Lynn English High School watched yesterday, will stretch beyond the hour or so students listened to a guest speaker.Rachel Scott was the first of 13 students killed during the 1999 Columbine High School shootings. Her six diaries are the foundation of the program that is described as a bullying and violence abatement program.After the presentations, Adam Northam, who was the speaker, held a training session for interested students and peer mediators to become a part of the “Friends of Rachel” (F.O.R.) club that meets weekly to discuss ways to make positive changes.The F.O.R. club will begin a “New Students Program,” a program designed to reach out to new students to make them feel more comfortable.They will also adopt a “Mix-it-up day,” where students pick a day each month to encourage cliques to sit with other cliques in an effort to make new friends.The “Target Letters Program” will have students writing appreciative letters once a month to people in their lives that might not hear it enough. “Pick a bus driver, a custodian, a teacher, a café worker,” said Northam, “The people that are in your life to make it better.”Establishing an Atmosphere of Kindness (A-OK) is another element created by the F.O.R. club. A-OK means doing anything from participating in a food drive to hanging positive posters around the school.Finally, the “Chain Links Project” is modeled after one of Scott’s most important theories; to start a chain reaction with kindness. Students will write an act of kindness they witness on a piece of paper and link it to others, creating a paper chain.The first meeting will be Monday, Sept. 20, at 7 a.m. in the Lynn English auditorium and run by Ginny Keenan, Peer Mediation Coordinator, and Lynn Police Det. Larry Wentzell.