Rachel Scott

From Free net encyclopedia

Rachel Joy Scott (August 5 1981 – April 20 1999) was the first victim of the Columbine High School massacre. She has since been the subject of several books. Some Christians in the United States consider her a martyr.

Scott lived near Littleton, Colorado, where she attended Columbine High School (which is actually located in an unincorporated area in Jefferson County) along with her younger brother, Craig.

She played the lead in a student-written school play. She was also active in Celebration Christian Fellowship church. She was "made for the camera," according to her father, and was an aspiring writer and actress. "There's nothing I can add or take away from what she gave us," her mom said. "In those short 17 years, it was complete." She had just performed in Columbine's Smoke in the Room and was writing a play for her senior year.

She quit smoking at the request of friend Nick Baumgart who later took her to the prom. If she hadn't quit, it's quite possible she would've been at Smoker's Pit during lunch instead of in the line of fire. Rachel was shot in front of the school cafeteria while she was eating lunch on the grass with friend Richard Castaldo. She died from gunshot wounds to the head, chest, arm and leg. Her car was turned into a memorial in the parking lot of the school.

In the aftermath of the massacre, it has been claimed that the gunmen, after having shot her in the leg while she was eating lunch, just outside the school, but before killing her with a point-blank shot to the temple, asked Scott if she believed in God, and that she had answered "You know I do."(This question was most famously attributed to deceased victim Cassie Bernall.)

An official investigation into the shootings, published eight months after the event, substantiated the claim that another student, Valeen Schnurr, had been asked that question and responded that way. This student, who had also been shot previously in the library, was not shot again and survived her injuries. It is possible that Rachel and other students were faced with the same question (or, as often happens, one conversation was attributed to someone else or multiple people). In the meantime, Scott's parents authored a book entitled Rachel's Tears: The Spiritual Journey of Columbine Martyr Rachel Scott (ISBN 0785268480). The martyr sobriquet has stuck, especially amongst devout Christians in the Bible Belt, and the reports remain in wide circulation.

Rachel's Tears is presented as a Christian meditation on the life, death, and faith of Rachel as seen through the eyes of her parents and through writings and drawings from her journals. The book also attempts a spiritual point of view on the Columbine tragedy and a vision for preventing youth violence.

Following her death, Scott's father Darrell, a devout Christian and son of a pastor, co-authored three books about her spirituality. He also resigned his job as a salesman and set up the Columbine Redemption, a non-profit organisation whose mission is to "motivate, educate and bring positive change to many young people." As part of this work he tours the United States speaking at churches, high schools and youth centers. Scott's mother participates in similar programs.

During her life, Scott produced a number of drawings and writings which some believe to have predicted the Columbine Massacre and her death. On May 2 1998, she wrote in her diary; "This will be my last year Lord. I have gotten what I can. Thank you", and in a poem she referred to the halls of Columbine High School as the "Halls of Tragedy".

A drawing produced two hours before her death portrays a pair of eyes and tears dropping onto a rose and turning into blood. The thirteen tears shown are said to correspond to the thirteen fatalities of the Columbine Massacre.

[edit]

External links

[edit]

Books published by Rachel's parents

  • The Journals of Rachel Joy Scott: A Journey of Faith at Columbine High, Beth Nimmo, 2001, ISBN 0849975948
  • Rachel's Tears: The Spiritual Journey of Columbine Martyr Rachel Scott, Beth Nimmo, Darrell Scott, Steve Rabey with Scott Rabey, 2000, ISBN 0785268480.
  • Rachel Smiles : The Spiritual Legacy of Columbine Martyr Rachel Scott, Darrell Scott, 2002, ISBN 0785264728
  • Chain Reaction A Call To Compassionate Revolution Darrell Scott, Steve Rabey, 2001, ISBN 0785266801de:Rachel Scott
Retrieved from "http://www.netipedia.com/index.php/Rachel_Scott"