Anti-bullying program at Preparatory Academy for Writers, Queens

Miller photography Students sign on to take Rachel’s Challenge and help transform their lives and school, along with Community Associate Shaney Freeman (second from left), Assistant Principal Chris Tidridge (center), Guidance Counselor Mahendra Singh (second from right) and teacher Stephanie Tello (far right).

Miller photography Larry Scott, with a photo of his niece Rachel in the background.

For middle and high school students, growing up can sometimes be tough. Adolescence can be a time of teasing, taunting and worse.

But English teacher Stephanie Tello and guidance counselor Mahendra Singh, of the Preparatory Academy for Writers in Springfield Gardens, Queens, set about bringing in a powerful anti-bullying program to motivate their students to increase the kindness and compassion in the world around them.

On Nov. 14, the small public middle through high school hosted a Rachel’s Challenge assembly, which Singh called “powerful and motivational.”

Named for Rachel Scott, the first student shot during the Columbine HS tragedy of 1999, the assembly featured her uncle Larry, who spoke to students about her life and goals.

After her death, Rachel’s parents read her school and journal writing. They found an essay in which she wrote, “I have this theory that if one person can go out of their way to show compassion, it will start a chain reaction ... people never know how far a little kindness can go.”

Rachel, her uncle shared, was the kind of person to befriend a girl who sat alone in the school lunchroom; she learned the girl’s mother had recently been killed in a car crash. She spent time with a disabled student and learned that he had been planning to commit suicide because he had no friends.

In her short time on the planet, Rachel made a difference in people’s lives — and she believed that everyone else could, too.

“I saw a huge effect on the students after the assembly,” Tello said. “Some were apologizing to each other, some were teary-eyed; they were processing everything they saw.”

Singh recounted that “a student told me, ‘I’m going home to tell my mom I love her.’”

Bringing the program to the school took a year, in which student fundraising helped to cover the cost of the assembly and program. Tello is the teacher-advisor for the “Friends of Rachel” club, which meets during lunch period to plan posters, activities and events to keep the challenge going throughout the school year.

To learn more about the program, visit www.rachelschallenge.org.