Father turns loss into quest for compassion

Tears poured down Sharnice Harris’ cheeks on Tuesday as the 12-year-old watched images of the 1999 Columbine High School shooting massacre and then joined 1,264 of her Waipahu Intermediate School classmates in promising to treat others with compassion and respect to help prevent a similar tragedy.

Waipahu Intermediate is Oahu’s first school to accept Darrell Scott’s challenge — known as Rachel’s Challenge — to honor his daughter Rachel, the first student killed in the Columbine shooting.

"You are all beautiful people, and I want to challenge you to do what my daughter did: to always find the good in people," Scott said to an auditorium filled with students at New Hope Leeward, in the Waipahu Town Center.

On April 20, 1999, two seniors at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., shot and killed 12 students and one teacher in one of the deadliest school massacres in U.S. history.

As Harris dabbed her face with her T-shirt, she said she can’t understand how people can be so cruel.

"It’s unbelievable that something like that happened. It’s really sad," she said.

Randell Dunn, principal of Waipahu Intermediate, said the shooting raised the issue of bullying, something that must be addressed.

The Associated Press said the shootings have spawned a debate about whether Columbine shooters Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were mentally ill or were reacting to bullying.

"Bullying is in all schools. It’s in ours. I won’t deny that," Dunn said. "This is the age where students are impacted the most, and if we can’t reach them here, we’ll lose them by the time they get to high school."

Scott established Rachel’s Challenge as a nonprofit organization following his daughter’s death in 1999. For the last 12 years, he has traveled the world encouraging students — from elementary schools to colleges — to make positive changes the way Rachel did. Scott said Rachel’s Challenge touches more than 3 million students a year.

The purpose stemmed from a two-page essay Rachel wrote a month before the shooting, "My Ethics, My Codes of Life."

Scott read from the essay, "‘If one person shows compassion, that starts a chain reaction of the same. People don’t know how far a little kindness can go.’

"In that she started the chain reaction we carry on today."

Alysha Leano, 12, said Tuesday’s assembly will help stop bullying.

"This story has made such a big impact on me, and that’ll start that chain reaction that Rachel wanted," she said.

It cost Waipahu Intermediate nearly $7,000 to host Rachel’s Challenge — $5,195 for the program and $1,470 to rent the auditorium for the day.

Susan Marciel, student activities coordinator, said Rachel’s Challenge is scheduled to return to Waipahu Intermediate for the next three years.

"At this age the kids are still very impressionable, and we need to make sure that we’re getting to their hearts," Marciel said.

Chloe Garcia, 13, student government president, said, "Seeing what she’s started means that we can change, too. It just makes me feel sad that so many people had to lose their lives for this great impact to occur."