Unit 1012
will remember and honor Rachel Scott every year on April 20. She was the first
murder victim of the 1999 Columbine High School Massacre. Since she was a
devout Christian, we will make her one of the 26 Christian Martyrs of Unit
1012. We will post information about her from Wikipedia.
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Rachel Joy Scott (August 5, 1981 - April 20,
1999) [PHOTO SOURCE: http://zanazl.tripod.com/Columbine/Victims/Dead/RachelScott.html]
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Born
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Rachel
Joy Scott
August 5, 1981 Denver, Colorado, United States |
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Died
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April
20, 1999 (aged 17)
Columbine, Colorado, United States |
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Cause of
death
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Gunshots
by Eric
Harris
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Resting
place
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Columbine
Memorial Gardens at
Chapel Hill Cemetery, Littleton, Colorado, United States 39°35′56.00″N 104°56′43.01″WCoordinates: 39°35′56.00″N 104°56′43.01″W |
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Occupation
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Student,
diarist
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Known for
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Murder
victim
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Religion
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Christian
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Parents
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Darrell
Scott (b. 1949)
Beth Nimmo (b. 1953) |
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Relatives
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Bethanee
McCandless (b. 1975)
Dana Scott (b. 1976) Craig Scott (b. 1983) Mike Scott (b. 1984) |
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Website
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Rachel Joy Scott (August 5, 1981 – April
20, 1999) was an American student and the first murder victim of the Columbine
High School massacre, which claimed the lives of 12 students and a
teacher, as well as both perpetrators.
She has since been the subject of
several books and is the inspiration for Rachel's Challenge,
a nationwide school outreach program for the prevention of teen violence, based
on her life and writings.
Background
Rachel Joy Scott was born on August 5,
1981, in Denver, the third of five children of Darrell Scott (1949 – ) and Beth
Nimmo (1953 – ). Her older sisters are Bethanee (1975 – ) and Dana (1976 – )
and her two younger brothers are Craig (1983 – ) and Mike (1984 – ). Her father
had formerly pastored a church in Lakewood, Colorado. Rachel's parents divorced
in 1989, but maintained a cordial relationship to one another.
The following year, Beth and the
children moved to Littleton, Colorado, where she remarried in 1995. Darrell
worked as a sales manager for a large food company in Denver. Darrell and Beth
had joint custody of the children.
As a child, Rachel attended Dutch
Creek Elementary School, and subsequently Ken Caryl Middle School.
Coincidentally, she knew Dylan Klebold from a class they
shared in 1999 and Dylan and she were members of Columbine's theater production
club. Dylan ran audio for a talent show a month and half before where Rachel
performed a mime act to the song "Watch the Lamb." The name Rachel
means "Little Female Lamb." Rachel's younger brother, Craig, was in the
school library during the shooting. Ten students were killed including two of
his friends, Isaiah Shoels and Matthew Kechter, next to Craig. Craig helped
pick up an injured girl and rallied students to safety. Two days later he
appeared on the Today Show with Isaiah's father in an interview in which
Anchorwoman Katie Couric stated it was "one of her most memorable and even
spiritual experiences she had ever had." Rachel's parents also appeared on
a show with Maria Shriver immediately after sharing on their personal choice of
forgiveness and the principle of it.
At the time of her death, the 17-year
old Columbine High School junior was an aspiring writer and actress with summer
plans to visit Botswana on a trip to help build homes. Two weeks prior to the
shooting, she had a lead role as an alternative character with sharp wit and
kind heart. The play was titled "Smoke in the Room" for which Dylan
ran the spotlight. Described as a very devout Christian by her mother, she was
active at youth group and a leader in a Bible study group called NaCl (periodic
table symbol for "salt"). According to friends, she often wore a
variety of hats and clothes showing a colorful personality. She left behind six
diaries along with journals with friends of shared experiences and encouraging
notes. Many writings were addressed to God. On the cover of one journal she had
with her the day of the shooting that in which a bullet was lodged into, she
wrote "I write not for the sake of glory. Not for
the sake of fame. Not of the sake of success. But for the sake of my
soul..." In other writings there was a theme of "reaching the
unreached" through acts of kindness and compassion.
One month before her death, she wrote
a school essay stating, “I have this theory that if one person can go out of their
way to show compassion then it will start a chain reaction of the same.”
Similarities have been noted between the journal Rachel kept and Anne Frank's
famous diary.
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Rachel Scott in 1997
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Death
Rachel was shot while eating lunch
with her friend, Richard Castaldo, on the lawn outside of the school's library.
She was killed by Eric Harris with multiple gunshot wounds to her head, chest,
arm, and leg. According to Richard's first account after awakening from a coma,
Richard told his parents the last account of Rachel's life as being mocked of
her faith. After the killings, her car was turned into a flower-shrouded
memorial in the adjacent Clement Park after being moved from the school's
parking lot by grieving students. A long chain link fence was installed for
mourners to attach teddy bears, letters and other gifts. Her younger brother,
Craig, was also at the school on the day of the shootout. He was in the library
where most of the killings occurred and he survived unharmed.
Funeral
Rachel Scott's funeral on April 24,
1999 was attended by more than 2,000 people and was televised throughout
the nation. It was the most watched event on CNN up to that point, surpassing
even the funeral
of Diana, Princess of Wales. Roger Rosenblatt of Time
magazine wrote in his commentary that her funeral was "... ineradicable
because of the photograph of your bright and witty face, now sadly familiar to
the country, and because of the loving and admiring testimonies of your
family."
Awards
Rachel Joy Scott was posthumously
awarded the 2001 National Kindness Award for Student of the Year by the Acts of
Kindness Association. In 2006, the National Education Association (NEA) of New
York awarded Darrell Scott and Rachel’s Challenge the Friend of Education
Award.
In 2008, after the Amish school
shooting, Craig, Rachel's brother, traveled to speak at a National Council on
School Safety before President George W. Bush, White House staff, and educators
from across the nation addressing cultural issues and his experiences of
speaking to over a million people on the road. Although no award was received,
the president requested a copy of the speech and Craig was invited back to
White House on another occasion.
In June, 2009, Darrell Scott was
selected in a nationwide vote of more than 750,000 baseball fans as the Colorado
Rockies "All-Stars Among Us" winner, based on individual public
service for his efforts in starting the Rachel's Challenge campaign. He was
honored along with the other 29 winners representing all major league
baseball teams as part of the pregame ceremonies at the 2009 Major League
Baseball All-Star Game in St. Louis, Missouri, on July 14, 2009.
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Cover of Rachel's Tears: The Spiritual
Journey of Columbine Martyr Rachel Scott.
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INTERNET
SOURCE: http://zanazl.tripod.com/Columbine/Victims/Dead/RachelScott.html
Rachel was
shot while she was eating lunch on the school lawn with Richard
Castaldo. At first she got hit by a volley of gunfire by Eric Harris. After
she had been hit, he saw that she wasn't dead, and he came back and fired at
her again. This time she died.
Rachel was
one of the first students killed, and witnesses have said that she was shot
only because she carried a Bible.
After the
shooting, her red Acura, parked where she left it in a lot between a park and
the school, became a flower and card covered shrine, often surrounded by
weeping and praying classmates.
During the
shooting, her younger brother Craig, 16, pretended to be dead in the library
and helped lead others to safety.
Rachel's
father, Darrell Scott, believes Rachel knew she was going to die young. He
points to an entry in her diary written less than a year before the shooting.
It reads: "This is my last year, Lord. I have gotten what I can. Thank
you." She had also spoken to friends about how she would never have a
chance to marry.
Rachel was
17 years old, and a junior at Columbine High School. She played the lead in a
student written schoolplay, "Smoke In The Room" and liked
photography. Rachel was a known as a strong Christian, and had lead a weekly
prayer and Bible study group of fellow teens for the past year and a half. She
was active in the Celebration Christian Fellowship, and was hoping to work as a
missionary in Africa.
She earned
good grades, and was working at the Subway sandwich shop, a couple of blocks
from Columbine High School, to pay off the car she had borrowed from her
parents. Rachel is survived by two brothers and two sisters.
In a diary
addressed to God, Rachel wrote, "I want you to use me to reach the
unreached." The diary was in her backpack the day she was shot, and has a
bullet hole.
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