Presenter preaches tolerance, kindness at Boulder Creek
Marc Buckhout ~ Managing Editor ~ 01/20/2010

For today’s high school students the shootings at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999, which took the lives of 12 students and one teacher, are only a vague memory. Members of the class of 2010 were 6, some 7-years-old when students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold brought guns to school and opened fire on fellow classmates before taking their own lives in a suburban town outside of Denver.
Nearly 11 years after the tragedy Nicole Nowlen, a student that survived being shot during the incident, spoke Jan. 11 at Boulder Creek High School in Anthem.
Her message to the student body and then to the general public later that evening was that of tolerance as she asked those in attendance to reach out to their fellow students rather than give in to prejudice and segregate based on inconsequential differences.
“Look into people’s eyes and try to find the good in them,” she said. “Eliminate your prejudices and look for the best in others.”
Nowlen was in attendance on behalf of Rachel’s Challenge, a non-profit dedicated to promoting the ideals set forth by Rachel Scott, a 17-year-old who was killed during the tragedy.
The group, which includes Scott’s brother, Craig, who also was on campus the day of the attacks, has made presentations all over the country.
Boulder Creek’s student organization, Violence Prevention Through Character, with the help of other group’s on campus including Key Club raised money to bring Rachel’s Challenge to campus. A private donor also was critical in making the event possible.
While Violence Prevention Through Character had been working on getting Rachel’s Challenge to campus for quite some time, November’s incident in which the school was vandalized with racial graffiti gave the goal more focus.
“I’ve been going to school here for four years and in that time I’ve seen a lot of kids get picked on,” senior Nyoka Morris said. “I thought this was an amazing program. This should be our family here when we’re at school. We don’t need to be making fun of each other. Hopefully the things that were talked about today will make us improve things here at Boulder Creek.”
Nowlen, in talking about Rachel’s life and what she believed in, put out five challenges to the student body at the Anthem school. Along with looking for the best in others the challenges were: dare to dream, choose positive influences, understand the value and power of kind words.
“Words have the power to hurt or the power to heal,” Nowlen said.
Nowlen detailed how Rachel made it one of her goals to reach out to new kids at school, those that were disabled and those that were picked on. One of those students, who she had stood up for when he was getting bullied, acknowledged that he had seriously considered suicide before Rachel had taken the time to stand up for him.
“They might not seem like much, but little acts of kindness can sometimes yield huge results,” Nowlen said.
The final challenge was to start a chain reaction, a phrase Rachel used to describe the snowball effect of one person treating another with kindness.
VPTC Club president Kris Hansford said he could tell the message of Rachel’s Challenge was heard by his fellow classmates.
“I’ve never heard the gym that silent during an assembly,” Hansford said. “I think we’ll take all five challenges and make them impactful at Boulder Creek.”
At the conclusion of the presentation VPTC’s faculty sponsor Linda Brunk announced that Friday students would be challenged to sit by somebody they didn’t know at lunch, giving them a chance to make a new friend or at least change a perception they might have had about somebody.
“It doesn’t matter if you’re in student council or an athlete or any other group,” she said. “Nobody should feel as though they’re any better than anybody else and nobody should be made to feel like they’re less than someone else.”
For information about Rachel’s Challenge go to www.rachelschallenge.org.