The mother of a student killed during one of the worst school shootings in US history has shared how she has since come to forgive her daughter’s killers.
The Columbine High School massacre took place on 20 April 1999, when Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold carried out the mass murder, killing 15 students in the school.
Rachel Scott was the first student killed during the shooting spree.
Faith
When the two gunmen approached Rachel and asked if she ‘believed in God’, she said yes and was then killed.
“Rachel died for the one thing she was willing to die defending and that was her faith,” her mother Beth said.
Beth met with the mother of Klebold after she received a ‘heartfelt’ letter of apology from her.
Forgiveness
“She was just as fearful of meeting me as I was of her. I didn’t know what I was going to say to her.
“This was the mother of one of the boys who shot my daughter. I asked the Lord what would you have me say to this woman?”.
Beth has been able to forgive the killers saying: “Forgiveness is me saying, what you did to me is not okay but I choose to forgive you because I’m not going to live in the pain of that for the rest of my life.”
‘Not ashamed’
A new film based on Rachel’s faith, titled ‘I Am Not Ashamed’, is set to be released later this month.
The film is inspired by journals found after her death, in which Rachel wrote repeatedly about her Christian faith and her struggle to remain faithful to Christ in the face of the temptations of the world.