Top Stories

Bullying, school safety challenges focus of symposium in Westmoreland County

GREENSBURG, Pa. — Darrell Scott has traveled around the world, testified before Congress and spoken to three U.S. presidents, telling the story of his daughter, Rachel Joy Scott.

“We’ve reached 28 million people in live settings. We heard story after story, people reaching out to one another,” Scott told Channel 11’s Lisa Sylvester.

On Monday, Scott visited Westmoreland Intermediate Unit as the keynote speaker of the school’s Western PA Stands Up to Bullying program.

“Our goal today is to have an open dialogue about bullying and other online risks that children face in today’s digital world,” said Tim Hammill, curriculum services director for Westmoreland Intermediate Unit.

The message of Rachel’s Challenge is “making schools safer, more connected places where bullying and violence are replaced with kindness and respect.”

TRENDING NOW:

Rachel was a 17-year-old student at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado on April 20, 1999.  She and a friend decided to eat lunch outside that warm spring day, when two students approached the school cafeteria and started shooting.

Rachel was the first of 13 people killed by 17-year-old Dylan Klebold and 18-year-old Eric Harris.

In the weeks that followed, Rachel’s family found solace and comfort in her diary and school essays.

In one essay she wrote, “Compassion is the greatest form of love humans have to offer.”

Her family founded Rachel’s Challenge around that message to look for the best in people and to find ways to relate and communicate with each other.

RELATED CONTENT: 

Darrell Scott told the crowd of educators, guidance counselors and students if there was one thing he hoped they would take away, it was, “Be a ‘see through-er’ not a ‘look-at-er” and life will have purpose and meaning.

"Don’t look at your circumstances; see through and you’ll find purpose. Don’t ‘look at’ people see through and you’ll find someone you can relate to.”

According to the group’s website, over 1.5 million people are involved in Rachel’s Challenge programs, more than 1,200 schools and business have been reached, and through feedback and letters received they’ve calculated 150 suicides have been averted.

Westmoreland Intermediate Unit has teamed up with leading internet safety app Bark to share anti-bullying safety features with parents.

The Bark app alerts parents when a potential threat is detected, including sexting, cyberbullying or suicidal thoughts. Bark was a 2016 CMG Techstars program. CMG is the parent company of WPXI-TV.

The panel discussion included the superintendent of the Freeport Area School District, Ian Magness; Diana Schroeder and Karla Joyce-Good from the Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention; student representative Ava Hammill; and Bark Technologies Vice President of Strategies and Education Tara Noftiser.

 

Cox Media Group

Most Read