Rachel Scott was the first person killed at the Columbine High School massacre on April 20, 1999. In light of the April 17, 2007, Virginia Tech shootings, Gayle welcomes Rachel's father, Darrell Scott, and her brother, Craig Scott, to talk about coping with tragedy and what they're doing to remember Rachel's life and make a positive impact in the lives of America's youth.
Craig himself narrowly escaped with his own life on the day Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold shot to death 13 people, including two of his best friends and his sister. He says seeing news of the shooting rampage at Virginia Tech stirred feelings of anger and sadness, and reminded him of the important work that he and his father, along with others, are carrying out through a program called Rachel's Challenge.
Darrell says they've reached millions with Rachel's Challenge, a school assembly and training program that helps students bring a positive change to their school's atmosphere. "We have to not allow the negative things to destroy us," he says. "We chose forgiveness, we chose to celebrate Rachel's life, we chose to live life instead of letting what happened destroy us."
Darrell says that more needs to be done to prevent tragedies like this from happening in the future. "The antidote to violence is not to tell people not to be violent—the antidote is kindness and compassion and showing the example," he says. "Unfortunately, we have incredible violence at the fingertips of every young person in America through the internet, through movies, through games, through music—and we need to be responsible."
Craig says his mission in life is to produce movies that will have a positive impact on people's lives, and he has already worked on several movies with a major film production company. "My goal is to help tell stories of ennobling characters that have a good affect on an audience, as well as entertain, but there has to be some responsibility there because it really is affecting my generation," he says.
Craig and Darrell say their hearts go out to the families affected by the shooting rampage at Virginia Tech. "I hope that the students at Virginia Tech don't let fear hold them back from going to school, from pursuing their dreams, from pursuing life," Craig says.
