It takes a lot to get middle school kids to cry in front of their peers, and even more to make them comfortable doing so.

Yet students said there was hardly a dry eye at Imagine MASTer Academy on Thursday, when students were introduced to the Columbine High School shooting tragedy during a general assembly.

The assembly was part of “Rachel’s Challenge,” a national anti-bullying program inspired by Rachel Scott, the first person killed at Columbine on April 20, 1999. Drawing on the moral principles outlined in Rachel’s diary and her class work, the program encourages students to create a friendly, more supportive environment in their own school.

Every student heard the basic “Rachel’s Challenge” presentation, but others were chosen or elected to serve as “student leaders,” undergoing additional training on how to implement the day’s lessons.

At one point during that training, students were asked if they wanted to come forward and talk about their experience with bullying or being bullied.

Grayson Blanton, 13, took to the microphone, braving a crowd of at least 50 kids.

“I was bullied,” he said later. “I was the weirdo, hyper kid for a long time.” Things were rough, he said, until his best friend Jacob came along and gave him the support he needed to feel better.

Steven Bailey, 11, also spoke, talking about the time he “almost killed someone” for taking his glue.

Even though he wasn’t yet born at the time of the Columbine tragedy, he said he was incredibly affected by it.

“I wish I could go back in time and try to save those people,” he said. “They didn’t deserve it.”

dhaynie@jg.net

Events

•Canterbury School will hold a kindergarten through grade 12 admissions information meeting for prospective families from 9 to 10 a.m. or 7 to 8 p.m. Tuesday at the school, 5601 Covington Road. Call 407-3553 or visit www.canterburyschool.org.

•The Fort Wayne Chapter of the Indiana Association of the Education of Young Children will be having its 2011 annual early childhood education conference: “Let’s Move! Let’s Learn! That’s What It’s All About!” on Saturday. Contact Mary Musson, 480-4154, mmusson@ivytech.edu for more information.

IPFW

•The Department of English and Linguistics presents poet Roger Mitchell at the Visiting Writers Series at noon Thursday in Walb Union, Room G21–21A.

•Mental Health Day will be from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday in Walb Student Union.

•Richard B. Pierce II, a graduate of Concordia Lutheran High School in Fort Wayne, will present “This Will Hurt Me More Than It Hurts You: Corporal Punishment and Jim Crow in America” as part of the Native Tongue Lecture Series at 7 p.m. Thursday in Neff Hall, Room 101.

•William Dunkelberg, nationally known authority on small business, will be presenting “Unemployment – How Can We FixIt?” at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in the Rhinehart Music Center. Free tickers are required for this lecture.

•The school is hosting a training seminar, “Campus Active Shooter…Readiness, Response, and Recovery” at the Holiday Inn at IPFW and Memorial Coliseum on Thursday. The seminar is presented by the Center for Personal Protection and Safety. The cost of the seminar is $199 per person and includes lunch. Registration is open to the public. For more information or to register, contact Brett Erdman with CPPS at 509-720-5988.

Saint Francis

•Guest artist and New York-based photojournalist Robert Gerhardt will speak about his work photographing the Karen people at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in the North Campus Auditorium.

•The university will hold a screening of the HBO documentary “Burma Soldier” at 7 p.m. Thursday in the North Campus Auditorium as part of a yearlong project for the president’s interfaith and community service challenge.

Huntington

•Jonathan Kuttab will give “A Christian Perspective on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict” during a Forester Lecture Series event at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the Zurcher Auditorium of the Merillat Centre for the Arts on campus.

Manchester

•Graduate Frederick Balagaddé, principal investigator of engineering technologies for Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, will speak at the Cordier Auditorium on the North Manchester campus at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday