Hyde School Survivors

Brochure that Hyde School has given Hyde parents Brochure link Transcribed text:  HYDE SCHOOL CONCEPTS 
HYDE SCHOOL AND THE RUNAWAY: A POSITION PAPER QUITTING DEFINED HISTORY WHO RUNS? WHEN AND WHY
 HOW TO RESPOND
 THE LEGITIMACY OF OUR POSITION Hyde is many things but it is first and foremost a challenge. Plain and simple, this is hard school. Many on the faculty are alumni and can vouch for this from both sides of the desk. Much has changed in our 25 years as a school but the idea of Hyde as challenging place has remained. Some students occasionally want to quit. That is normal. Taking the step from wanting to quit to acting upon it is a serious matter. It is also a family matter. There are two ways to quit. One is to pack up one's belongings and depart the campus - i.e. run away. The other is to refuse to comply with the demands of the program. Both ways add up to the same conclusion: the student has decided to quit on the commitment that was made at the interview. It is importa

From Fornits Hello, I am new to this board. I found this board after I realized Hyde(Woodstock) was not working for me, -- I AM a current student on their Woodstock campus. I also realize how risky it may be for me to come on this board, but I know my mom is going to struggle withdrawing me, and Hyde's manipulative ways. I can here a mere 4 weeks ago and already feel manipulated and lied to. When I came for a tour they seem to have put on a false front and this school is nothing what it seems. I was told this was a school for kids "who struggled, but were striving to get better" and trying move on in their life. I lost my father in February (14) of this year to cancer, and I struggled from there at home. I used to be a straight A student, but the sudden death of my father rocked my boat a little too hard and I lost my groove. I was struggling with simple tasks, and my mom thought a change of scenery would do me some good. She researched school, and was easily attracted t

I don't know where to begin. So happy our son is out of that place!! The arrogance, verbal abuse, poor supervision, and the most dysfunctional cast of characters that they call a staff. If your child has a mental health issue, substance abuse issue, learning disability, or just low self esteem, they will not improve here. The campus is rife with drugs - prescription and otherwise and some students are prone to violent outbursts. They idea of discipline is forced labor and humiliation through meetings with faculty where they verbally abuse, embarrass, and degrade students. The FLC meetings are a joke, not to mention they expect you to go to parent group meetings in your area. They aren't concerned with the fact that you have other children, a job, or other important commitments. My parent group leader divulged very personal graphic issues of her strained marriage in our first meeting!! Its a cult atmosphere and the staff does not take criticism well at all. This idea

  HYDE School: Follow Your Own Advice and Heal Thyself A Former Hyde Parents' Review. Original post Our family has now been affiliated with Hyde for several years.  It has taken us some time to figure out Hyde's true colors.  We started Hyde in earnest.  We were not in a true state of crisis, although we had some concerns about our child's path.  Our child enrolled in Summer Challenge which, overall, seemed to be a rather benign experience (with the exception of a couple of group seminars where, clearly, the group facilitators were in over their heads when a couple of parents disclosed some incredibly powerful, sensitive, and provocative information in front of their children and the rest of us -- it was painful to watch and hear the staff's inept handling of the situations). Our child then started Hyde in September of that year.  Initially we bought into the program and attended all meetings (regional, FLCs) faithfully.  We gave it our best shot as we embraced Hyde'

  CONDITIONS FOR MIND CONTROL DR. MARGARET SINGER (Margaret T. Singer, Ph.D., Emeritus Prof. of Psychology, Univ. of CA, Berkeley) THOUGHT REFORM = LANGUAGE + SOCIAL & PSYCHOLOGICAL INFLUENCE In a thought reform program: the self concept is destabilized the group/leaders attack one's evaluation of self SELF: 2 Elements in one's self-concept Peripheral Sense: adequacy of public & judgmental aspects, social status, role performance, conformity to social norms Central Sense of Self: adequacy of intimate life, confidence in perception of reality, relations w/family, goals, sexual experiences, traumatic life events, religious beliefs, basic consciousness and emotional control When you attack a person's self-concept, aversive emotional arousal is created 6 CONDITIONS THAT NEED TO BE PRESENT IN ORDER TO CONSTITUTE MIND CONTROL: 1. CONTROL OVER TIME Especially thinking time Use techniques

Slap May Be Just What Child Needs by Hyde School founder and then-headmaster Joe Gauld. Originally published in Maine Sunday Telegram's column "Courage to Grow", July 8th, 1973. ________________ Should you ever slap a kid? How about a man teacher slapping a girl student? I think the place of such "physical" education in American childrearing is badly misunderstood. Most people who hit kids do it for the wrong reasons - like out of their own frustrations. Most people who don't hit kids, don't do it for the wrong reasons - like out of mistaken compassion. "Spanking", at best, has a mixed acceptance in our society, but slapping a kid is definitely out. As one educator recently said to me: "If I had to hit a kid to get the message across, I would consider myself a failure." Yet, with this seemingly "Christian" attitude in raising kids, assaults, rapes and murders mark us as the most violent society in the world today. We do seem

Excerpt from UNREQUITED TIME, James McCurrach Jim finally overstepped the boundaries on the bus ride home for the Thanksgiving break in 1977. He brazenly lit up a marijuana cigarette in full view of a bus full of students in the middle of the day. Totally foolish, of course, but also unnecessary in that within only a few hours he would have been out of the school jurisdiction and in the safety of his own home. Leniency wasn't going to work in to this instance- especially since he had already had several warning related to circumstantial situations. This time he had gone too far and was terminated from Berkshire. ...Whatever, young James now required even more serious attention since Berkshire had become ancient history. I was ashamed of him as well as myself.. I needed to get Jim relocated as quickly as possible without, hopefully, making wrong move. Eventually, I heeded the advice of some experienced educational people and we later settled on the Hyde School located in remote part

FINDING THE RIGHT SCHOOL: LESSONS LEARNED FROM “INSIDE” Rick Reamer and Deborah Siegel Pawtucket, RI freamer@cox.net Parents of struggling teens typically agonize about finding the “right” school or program. They sort through mounds of data – from educational consultants, school directories, pamphlets, promotional videos, websites, campus visits and conversations with school staff – before settling on what they hope is the right choice. We’ve been there. During the spring of 2003, we spent countless hours combing through every morsel of information we could find about an overwhelming array of school options. We knew our child did not need a therapeutic boarding school. We simply needed a school that offered structure; consistent, humane supervision; a positive peer culture; constructive emphasis on personal accountability and integrity; and a willingness to collaborate collegially with parents. We did not seek perfection, realizing that those who do will always be disappointed. We foll

This book paints an appealing image of an enlightened high school that involves the whole family in developing positive character traits. We do not doubt the authors' sincerity, genuine enthusiasm for, and commitment to the Hyde Schools. Clearly, these authors are eager to spread the good word. However, our actual experience as parents of a Hyde School (in Woodstock, Conn.) student showed us that the practices and policies used to teach "character" often, paradoxically, violate the noble principles articulated in this book and espoused at the school. In our view, it is ironic that a school whose mission is character education is misrepresented in this book, which provides a misleading, partial picture of the Hyde we experienced. Also, it's unfortunate that this book on education, written by educators, does not explicitly refer to the research and theoretical literature on effective behavior management, adolescent development, and education; much of this literature que

 Survivor testimony: I went through hell at Hyde. Of course right when you get there your parents basically have to sign your rights away. So they can’t get sued. First of all, I wasn’t a kid that went there because there parents sent me there; I went willingly. When I visited, I thought it was a regular old prep school. I had no idea what was really going on. I wanted to get out of my old school because my friends were selling drugs and there was violence, and I wanted a healthy environment, so I thought Hyde was my way out where I could play sports and not be around so much danger. So when I got there, I was in for a big shock. The dorms were absolutely out of control. When I mean out of control I mean fight clubs at night like real deal MMA with no gloves, beating the absolute crap out of each other. There was one time when Hyde’s champion wrestler got drunk and beat up 8 kids in my dorm…. We came in for breakfast the next morning and there were multiple kids with black eyes and bru

TW: Rape, victim blaming  Penelope's story: I was a senior at Hyde during 2020. One night I snuck into the boys' dorm to hang out with my two friends. I was drunk already and wanted something to do other than sit in my room. I walked across campus without being seen and got to Emero Dorm. When I got there, one of the guys started coming on to me, but I didn't give much thought to it. I started blacking out from the alcohol, so we went into one of the guy's rooms so that I could drink some water, eat something, and sit down. I don't remember much, but the guys decided to take turns having sex with me. After both of them were done, I lay alone in the bed in a drunken stupor. A third guy from the dorm came into the room and tried to talk me into having sex with him as well. I said "no" repeatedly and screamed. I slept there that night and woke up to a lot of pain and bruising on and around my vagina. My throat hurt because I had also been choked.  A few days

Reposted from an amazing blogger Tuesday, April 23, 2013 The Gym - The Most Depressing Place in America ...When I was about fifteen, I stopped going and found myself gaining weight at an alarming rate. I'd been taking ADHD medications since I was eight and was often told that I was in danger of serious weight gain. My mother had heard that a friend of hers got a trainer for her overweight son at the gym of the Pikesville Hilton who helped him lose quite a bit of weight. I went to the gym, and that's where I met Kathleen. Kathleen was twenty-one, a petite blonde shikse from Glen Burnie, whom for reasons I could not fathom worked at the Pikesville Hilton. She constantly wreaked of cigarette smoke and had a giant, multicolored tattoo on the small on her back. She was constantly telling me how much she couldn't stand the other trainers. Half-hour sessions turned into two hours as she regaled me with stories of her ex-boyfriends and how much her girl-friends slept around. I was

Reader response/Letters to the Editor, Maine Times 1992 Joe Gauld still loose? I was interested to read Diane L Potter’s letter . I hadn’t seen the article she was referring to and was very surprised to find that Joe Gauld is not in an institution. As the father of a student at Hyde School in the mid-80s, I have an insider’s perspective. Ms. Potter’s letter covers some very valid points but she doesn’t know the half of it!  When my wife first checked out Hyde school Timothy Wilson was in charge but when we brought our daughter there to start school Mr. Wilson was gone and Joe Gauld was in full charge. What a difference! Joe claims the school is not for kids with behavior problems, yet most of the students I’ve seen were there in a desperation situation. The next step for most of them was either running away from home or reform school or jail. That is the only reason the parents and students put up with what they did. One of Joe’s fun little games is what he calls a “Family Learning Cen

Our family has now been affiliated with Hyde for several years.  It has taken us some time to figure out Hyde's true colors.  We started Hyde in earnest.  We were not in a true state of crisis, although we had some concerns about our child's path.  Our child enrolled in Summer Challenge which, overall, seemed to be a rather benign experience (with the exception of a couple of group seminars where, clearly, the group facilitators were in over their heads when a couple of parents disclosed some incredibly powerful, sensitive, and provocative information in front of their children and the rest of us -- it was painful to watch and hear the staff's inept handling of the situations). Our child then started Hyde in September of that year.  Initially we bought into the program and attended all meetings (regional, FLCs) faithfully.  We gave it our best shot as we embraced Hyde's core message about character, attitude, and values.  Slowly, we began to realize how toxic Hyde is, h