ROME TOWNSHIP — A former Michigan high school teacher will be the main speaker for the upcoming Rachel’s Challenge events at Fairland schools.

Rachel’s Challenge is a program named for Rachel Scott who was the first student killed in 1999 at the Columbine High School shooting. The program was created by Rachel’s father, Darrell Scott, who turned to the writings in her diaries about wanting people to treat each other with more kindness.

Inspired by that he created Rachel’s Challenge, whose mission is to encourage others to create a “permanent positive culture change” where they live and work.

Bill Sanders, who was so personally affected by Darrell Scott’s work that he wrote the original program for high school students and trained the presenters, will speak.

“He presents Rachel’s life and what her life and death mean to this world and the impact her life had, hoping to remind people to be kind and treat people the way they want to be treated,” Evelyn Capper, assistant principal at Fairland Middle School, said.

All the events will be on Thursday, Feb. 21, starting with an assembly for Fairland Middle students at the high school at 8 a.m.

“It is geared specifically for middle school students and is not as graphic,” Capper said. “It is talking about the whole situation.”

From 10 to 11 a.m. will be an assembly for high school students. Then between 1 and 2 p.m. 100 student leaders from the middle and high schools with 10 teachers will participate in a training session.

“The purpose is to carry through, help them continue the work, not just have an assembly and say goodbye and everybody leave,” Capper said. “It is to keep it going.”

In the evening starting at 6:30 p.m. the community is invited to come to Fairland Middle School to discuss the principles of Rachel’s Challenge further.

“It is for anyone in the community, parents, grandparents,” Capper said. “We are inviting local politicians, our court system. Everybody needs to be part of this and be aware.”

The daylong event is sponsored by Fairland schools, Cabell Huntington Hospital, Donald R. Capper law office and Ohio University Southern-Proctorville campus.