The Rachel’s Challenge assembly dedicated to motivating the students to make positive changes in the way they treat their peers comes to Sidney Monday.

A community presentation will be held that evening at 7 p.m. at the Sidney High School gym, and a community volunteer presentation for parents follows Tuesday at , showing how to sustain the momentum created. The challenge itself is based on Rachel Scott’s belief that kindness can start a chain reaction that could reach around the world. She was the first person killed at the Columbine High School shooting April 20, 1999.

Sidney Middle School principal Kelly Johnson said she’s excited about Rachel’s Challenge. “Our goal is to implement a year-long followup component program...” she said, which will involve weekly lessons and adding new “compassion” clubs on campus for students to join. “It can’t be something that one teacher or two teachers do,” she said. Johnson said problems with bullying and students being disrespectful of each other has always existed, but today, it’s an even larger issue. “With the type of technology available to students, I mean, you can’t get away from it,” she said. “It makes it much more difficult to deal with.”

A survey conducted last year at the middle school asked parents, teachers and students to rate certain statements regarding the school’s environment basing it on their agreement with various statements. Results showed that the students felt bullying is a problem, and students don’t solve problems nonviolently.

Students were then asked how others are disrespectful. Answers include some of the following: name calling, making obscene gestures, giving dirty looks, threatening others, stealing from others, making rude comments when a peer does bad on an assignment or test, and talking bad about teachers behind their backs. “It goes on and on and on,” Johnson said.

The principal then wanted to find out how these problems can be solved, which launched the students into being proactive. More assemblies, they said, which ultimately brought about Rachel’s Challenge; more activities where the students interact with those they don’t normally; and conduct interactive games.

Results from the survey “stunned” Johnson, who said she’s always tried to instill a safe learning environment for her students. “First of all, it made us aware of areas of concern that we didn’t really realize,” she said. It gave the staff new solutions. Some of these include implementing an anonymous reporting box that students can use if they don’t want to be “tattle tails,” and the use of video survelliance cameras.

Sidney High School graduate and Miss Montana contestant Jill Sharp said she understands the severity of bullying, which is why she chose the cyber-bullying and harassment prevention as her platform. “The reason I chose my platform as anti-bullying is because I wanted to get people in the community also more aware that it’s a bigger problem than people think,” she said. “It’s getting worse, especially with the younger generations now because there’s so much technology.”

Sharp, who has also been effected by cyber-bullying, had planned to attend the community presentation but couldn’t due to college. She did say the challenge will be helpful in spurring positive changes. “Someone reaching out to them is going to help them a lot,” she said,” so they have support and at least someone knows about it.”

But schools can only do so much. Officials’ authority begins and ends within school walls, which means, one of the most important ways staff can deal with problems of bullying is through role modeling. This summer, the middle school staff was asked to read a book that gave advice on dealing with bullying. Some attended a workshop in Bozeman to hear a national speaker address the topic at the Montana Behavior Institute.

Johnson said she looks forward to seeing the presentation for the first time. “I have high hopes for this program,” she said. “I hope that it generates enough excitement to get people willing to do the long-term aspects of this program.”

For more information on Rachel’s Challenge, visit www.rachelschallenge.org.

reporter@sidneyherald.com