Has anyone had Rachel's Challenge come to their high school?
First off, let me say this: the columbine shooting was an absolutely tragic event, Rachel's death is nothing but a travesty, and I am in no way trying to make fun of anything. I am just trying to look at the Rachel's Challenge campaign in a different way than it is presented.
Now that I got that out of the way... let me tell you what Rachel's Challenge is if you dont already know. If you do know what it is, skip the italic part.
In the Columbine High School Shooting in Colorado in 1999, the first person to be killed by the gunman was a girl names Rachel Scott. She was an incredibly warm hearted, positive girl, who always made other people smile. The presentation claimed that she literally saved multiple people's lives by being nice to them when they were being bullied. The message that they give and purpose of the presentation is to promote the stopping of bullying.
Now this is where the conspiracy sets in...
Rachel apparently told her family and friends often that she was going to die at a young age. But, she was perfectly at peace with the fact. She even wrote in her journal that she was going to die in a homicide.
Now here is my theory... (Disclaimer: I am not saying this is true, but merely a possibility).
Since Rachel (apparently) knew she was going to die at a young age, her death was partially her own fault. She could have told the gunman to shoot her, thrown herself in the line of fire... there are many possibilities.
What I want to know is why her friends and family didn't find the fact that she was so convinced that she knew she would die soon an extreme concern. I know if I knew someone with that mindset I'd force them to go to a professional to get help.
And the profit part:
As you all may know, nearly every speech or presentation has some sort of exaggeration or white lie to it. The Rachel's Challenge campaign almost certainly exaggerated aspects of the story. For example: the people they interviewed for the video, they probably wanted to be in the video, so they made their story as compelling and astounding as possible. Example: her brother claimed on the morning of the shooting, he and her sister got in a fight in the car on the way to school and the last thing he did to her was call her names and slam the car door in her face. He said if he could relive the moment he would've just said he loved her, like that is something every high school kid says to their siblings in the morning.
There are numerous, countless even, other exaggerations and made up events in the show. You'd know if you saw it. I found myself in doubt more than I should have for a presentation like it is.
So these exaggerations are just to make the presentation more appealing - right. So obviously this campaign is to spread awareness of stopping bullying - that's a great thing! Bullying isn't good, duh. So if this is such a light hearted, life lesson, make yourself a better person campaign, why do they charge each school they visit NEARLY $10,000. Yes, $10,000. Shouldn't it be at least a little more towards the side of non-profit?
Here's a summary of the presentation in a youtube video:
So what's the deal? Is it a money-sucking conspiracy? Or am I just a bad person for writing this (even though all my friends and I agree with this)?
SPARKNOTES: Watch the video and what do you think?
A quick word on blocking ads
It looks like you are using an ad blocker. That's okay. Who doesn't? But without advertising revenue, we can't keep making this site awesome. Click the link below for instructions on disabling adblock.
