Mary Baird, President and CEO of the Ophelia Project, is coming to Riverside the evening of Thursday, October 12, 7PM in the Hauser Auditorium to speak to parents about how they can help their children form healthy peer relationships.
The Ophelia Project believes that the primary root of many adolescent issues is relational aggression: behavior intended to harm someone by damaging or manipulating his or her relationships with others. This aggression can take many forms, including exclusion, malicious gossip and rumor spreading, taunting and name calling, alliance building, covert physical aggression and cyberbullying.

Ms. Baird will discuss why this behavior should not simply be written off as human nature, why it affects boys as much as girls, how parents can protect their children from its effects, and how it can be prevented in the first place.

Ms. Baird has been interviewed on this topic by The View, ABC News, Dateline NBC, the New York Times, Parents Magazine and many others. She normally gets paid thousands of dollars to speak to groups, but is coming to District 96 free of charge because her niece, Kathie Kunish, is a Blythe Park parent.

The Ophelia Project was inspired by the work of psychologist and author Dr. Mary Pipher, who detailed the struggles of girls growing up in today’s society in the book amazon.com“>Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls. Its mission today encompasses all school age children, including boys, whose needs in this area have been found to be every bit as urgent as girls.

This event will be free of charge and open to all community members and will be held in the Hauser Auditorium at 7PM on Thursday October 12, 2006.