ALLEGATIONS 

The Hyde School, whose flagship campus is in Bath, Maine, has recently been accused of physical and emotional abuse by former students. One former student, Jessica Fuller (Class of 2015), filed a lawsuit against the school on Friday. The suit includes various claims, including students “being slammed into walls by Hyde staff, choked, grabbed, and pushed to the ground.” 

“They’re screaming at you, they’re yelling at you, they’re in your face,” said Fuller.  Fuller, along with another former student, recounted being woken up at 6 a.m. to go to the gym or do work for the school. 

The gym, according to Fuller, included “sprinting until you’re throwing up.” Rachel Deadman, who went to the school in 2005, recalled an experience with an asthma attack during a workout. “I’m starting to stop to try and catch my breath and breathe, and I remember someone pushing their foot on my back, pushing me down, and I have to continue,” said Deadman.  

Included in the alleged work was landscaping, cleaning floors, shoveling dead birds and cow manure at a farm, building structures, and shoveling snow. Students could be put on a “work crew,” which meant being taken out of classes to work as a punishment for misbehaving. 

Emotional claims accompany physical ones. “I feel like its child abuse for hire,” said Emma Siegel-Reamer, who attended Hyde in 2003. “It was just beaten into my brain that I was bad. I deserved what I was getting. And I adopted that persona, because I truly believed that’s who I was.” 

Julie W., who went to Hyde in 1997, said “I used to think, if I write a suicide note, Hyde will be my No. 1 thing I’m blaming. Because that’s the thing that never leaves me.” 

RESPONSES 

“Hyde vehemently denies these claims and intends to vigorously defend itself, its reputation, and the character education model that makes Hyde the special and effective school it is”, said Board of Governors President Dana McAvity. 

The school also says the lawsuit is a mischaracterization of practices and includes false statements.  

“Contrary to the allegations made in the lawsuit, Hyde considers its obligations to protect students to be paramount,” McAvity said. “We stand behind our school leaders and believe that they have worked tirelessly to do the right thing for our students.” 

Hyde says it has produced life-changing results for students through a unique approach.  

Corey Rosenberg is a 44-year-old advertising creative director and copywriter from New York City. 

He says Hyde School forces students to confront difficult tasks and transform themselves. Rosenberg was kicked out of a prestigious school in Connecticut and sent to Hyde School by his mother in the late 1990s.  

He says the school changed his life in a positive way. “It just completely turned me around and put me on a trajectory in life that would not have happened otherwise,” Rosenberg said. 

Rosenberg emphasized that students at Hyde School were well-informed about the school’s rules and the consequences of breaking them. He said the students who broke those rules, such as drinking alcohol of doing drugs, were the only ones who were subject to go out on work crews and workouts. 

Rosenberg is extremely bothered by the lawsuit’s claims, which he says are false and misleading.  

“It really kind of almost cheapens or puts a dark stain on something that is so sacred and important for so many other students who made the choice to embrace that program, got on board and are forever transformed and better because of it,” said Rosenberg. 

HISTORICAL DISCIPLINARY MEASURES 

This is not the first time the Hyde School has faced allegations of abuse. Additionally, it’s not the first time the school has spoken about its disciplinary process. 

Yahoo News reports founder Joseph Gauld wrote a Maine Sunday telegram in 1973 titled “Slap May Be Just What a Child Needs.” Throughout the article, Gauld “recounts hitting a prospective student three times and chasing her around campus during an interview.” 

Punishments or “work” for students also date back to the school’s origins. A 1973 Time magazine article alleged public paddling and trench digging as punishments for students. Yahoo News reports the article alleged Gauld “occasionally slaps and routinely humiliates the kids” and that he said, “the rod is only wrong in the wrong hands.” 

While the founder would respond to these accusations, he did not deny them. Instead, Gauld alleged the school was misrepresented, and that there was more to the picture. He noted that acts of affection accompanied discipline. 

More recently, Joseph Gauld’s son Malcolm, who went on to run the school, said the work crew was the punishment for misbehaving. This included being pulled out of classes, activities, and sports. “The fact that many students consider this cruel and unusual punishment says more about our society than it does about Hyde School,” said Malcolm Gauld in his 1992 “Discipline at Hyde School.” 

The lawsuit seeks immediate court intervention into the actions of the Hyde School. Fuller and her attorneys are hoping to be granted class action status on the suit. They ask the court for compensatory and punitive damages.