Rachel Scott
Rachel Scott | |
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Scott in 1997 | |
| Born | Rachel Joy Scott August 5, 1981 |
| Died | April 20, 1999 (aged 17) Columbine, Colorado, U.S. |
| Cause of death | Gunshot wounds |
| Burial place | Chapel Hill Memorial Gardens, Centennial, Colorado, U.S. |
| Occupations |
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| Signature | |
| Part of a series of articles on the |
| Columbine High School massacre |
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Location: Perpetrators: Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold |
Rachel Joy Scott (August 5, 1981 – April 20, 1999) was an American student who was the first fatality of the Columbine High School massacre, during which 13 other students and a teacher were also murdered by Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, who then committed suicide.
Scott has been revered by groups of evangelical Christians as a Christian martyr, although the circumstances surrounding her death and martyrdom have been disputed. She posthumously was the subject and co-writer of several books, and also was the inspiration for Rachel's Challenge, an international school outreach program and the most popular school assembly program in the U.S. The aim of Rachel's Challenge is to advocate Scott's values, based on her life, her journals, and the contents of a two-page essay, penned a month before her murder, entitled My Ethics; My Codes of Life. This essay advocates her belief in compassion being "the greatest form of love humans have to offer".