Tag Archives: Rachel Simmons

The Myth of the Good Girl and Boys in Skirts

“I’ve never met a girl who doesn’t have something to be sorry about,” said Rachel Simmons to her female audience on April 12. “It’s not, ‘people were so mean to me and now I’m so nice.’ No one’s perfect.”

Rachel Simmons at WillistonOn April 12, Ms. Simmons, a nationally regarded speaker on bullying prevention and female empowerment, spoke to the girls of the Williston Northampton School about how they could identify hurtful behavior, and change the patterns that created it.

The Upper School had divided in two for the special morning assembly. Girls listened to Ms. Simmons in the Phillips Stevens Chapel, while boys headed to the Williston Theatre to hear Dr. Christopher Overtree, director of the Psychological Services Center (PSC) at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and an expert on the prevention of bullying and harassment.

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Spring Visitors Bring Information, Fun to Assemblies

Rob Hackenson pulled a ladder out of his bag and began taping pieces of paper to it. “High school” went on one rung, “college” on another, and then “job,” “family,” “retirement,” and “travel.”

It was, he told Williston Northampton students during an assembly on March 29, the general route that each one of them would take during the course of their lives.

“Each and every one of you have certain aspirations and things you want to obtain,” Mr. Hackenson said. “Certain decisions can help you attain them, and certain things can make them much more difficult.”

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