Hyde / The family Foundation School

[tommyfromhyde1]

:nworthy:
I was at Hyde in '76-'77 so I have a lot of
questions. This Sequin Island buisiness is new,
this is the first time I've heard of it.
Tell me, do they still tell your parents to lock
you out of the house if you run away?
Also, is a particular sadist named Henry Milton
still a faculty member? I'm sure I'll think of
more.
              Peace,
               Tommy

Bureaucracy defends the status quo long past the time when the quo has lost its status
--Laurence J. Peter

[Britt15]

Hi, if anyone at all has any information (negetive) of the family foundation school please let me know. Someone very close to me was just sent there and i know he does not belong there, he has no drug or alcohol problems, the only problems he had were in school. Ihave already heard pretty disturbing things about this school and i am afraid for this child. I need as much information as possible!
Thank you
[email protected]

[Britt15]

Kady, you said in one of your messages that you only stayed at the Family School for a short period of time. How long exactly did you stay there because i was told that the allowed minimum stay was 18 months! my bestfriend/boyfriend of 2 years was sent there about a month ago, and if i really believed that he needed help and should be there this would be a lot easier for me to deal with. I am genuinly worried about him and his emotional health. So please any other information you may have let me know!
thanks!

[Anonymous]

Hi, I am sixteen yrs. old, and If you are looking for a school for a teen in recovery of a drug addiction I suggest you look into Phoenix House Academy in Westchester. However, you mentioned she didnt want to live in NY anymore. There are other facilities other places, such as California, etc. Look into it. I recommend it because I am being sent there, and its a theraputic community. Its alot nicer than most of these bullshit schools.

[Anonymous]

Anything new about either of these schools?  I've notice there are only a handful of these schools across the Northeast part of the US; they must be doing something right with regards to working the system

[Anonymous]

Here's a recent update.
Aug. 21, 2004

I met a mom who took her daughter out of Family Foundation. The teen was there for over a year. For almost eight months she had been trying to get her daughter out. They make it very hard and create a very intnese guilt trip when you want to remove your child before 18 months.

FF was willing to take this child who was beyond there scope and abilities to treat or help.  The school might do well with druggies who buy into the 12 step philosophy and do not need on going therapy or psychiatric treatment (I think most troubled teen need family therapy not just 12 step program).  Anyhow, This teen was diagnosed by her doctors at home with early onset of childhood bipolar and she had an eating disorder.  Her life had been complete unmanageable running away sleeping on the streets of Manhattan and very, very dangerous and threatening to family, school teachers and  herself..

 At the Family foundation they wanted her off medicine as soon as she got there!!
They finally put her back on the medication. But She was not adequately maintained on  the full therapeutic doses or monitored properly, she continued  to have serious mental and emotional difficulties.

The worst part for this family was that they continuously "shunned" her daughter,  the whole community did this for weeks on end even when the mom went to pick her daughter up at the school to leave. No one (staff  or  kids) were allowed to say good, wave to her, or hug her good bye.  

Her daughter is home and still very manic but not dangerous. She was put back on the appropriate adequate doses of her medication. She will be attending a therapeutic school week boarding / day school and have on going care from a psychiatrist and family therapist.   This level of care at home had not worked before the Family Foundation placement and they are hoping for the best now.

[Anonymous]

The family foundation school is realllly bad. I went to Swift River (another shithole) but my friend there came from The Family school.  She saw a boy commit suicide by jumping off one of the buildings and his head crack open in front of her, his blood got on her clothes. She was obvously very upset and traumatized, so she was restrained, drugged, and put in the isolation room becaause she was "out of control". The isolation room was one room where she had to stand constantly. It was never cleaned, piss was on the floor, and a camera watched everything she did.  food was handed to her thru a slit in the door 3 times a day, like in the count of monte cristo or something. she got 1hr per day to sit. she was in there 3 days. jesus christ we are teenagers, you could get more humane treatment at some prisons

[Anonymous]

I just wanted to say that I'm 29, graduated from Hyde in 1994, and the things people are saying about the school in this thread are RIDICULOUS. Hyde is a wonderful place and got me back on the right track and helped me to realize that integrity needs to come way before anything else in life. I went on to Hamilton College, taught for a few years, and am now a reporter for a local (rhode island) newspaper. Get your facts straight, people.

[tommyfromhyde1]

On 2004-09-22 11:12:00, Anonymous wrote:

"I just wanted to say that I'm 29, graduated from Hyde in 1994, and the things people are saying about the school in this thread are RIDICULOUS. Hyde is a wonderful place and got me back on the right track and helped me to realize that integrity needs to come way before anything else in life. I went on to Hamilton College, taught for a few years, and am now a reporter for a local (rhode island) newspaper. Get your facts straight, people."

 What facts do I not have straight? Are people
who aren't brainwashed enough not put on two-four
work crew anymore? Are parents whose kids don't
like Hyde not being told to throw their kids out?
Are parents who don't fork over huge "donations"
- AFTER paying the huge tuition- not reamed out as "deadbeats" anymore? Are people not being
forced to work out to the point of injury and
then being forced to work out injured? (After
being accused of "faking it" of course). Are
people not being encouraged to rat each other out
for every petty little thing?
 BTW I went to Hyde too in 1976.
         Peace,
           Tommy

He who joyfully marches in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would suffice.
--Albert Einstein

[The_Reverend]

i'm literally sitting in the hyde school computer lab reading this right now.  This school is not a bad place at all.  The 2-4 work crew that was talked about is a punishment lasting usually a few days, NEVER months.  and the labor is never hard, just boring.  to get on 2-4 you just have to do drugs, have sex, cheat, or lie.  the rules are easy enough to abide by.

i came here after spending 6 months at the family school.  now THAT place is hell on earth,  i replied to a post above with some comments on that.  but please parents, do NOT send your kids there.  it is a miserable place, and no kid deserves it.  e-mail me for more information.  [email protected]

[Antigen]

Lie about what? How do you determine the kid is lying? Most of these places determine a kid is lying whenever they say anything they don't want to hear.

I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me.  
-- Hunter S. Thompson

[Anonymous]

How does ANYONE get in trouble for lying?  Your statements are based on no facts, so i won't even bother disputing with you.

[tommyfromhyde1]

On 2004-09-27 09:59:00, Anonymous wrote:

"How does ANYONE get in trouble for lying?  Your statements are based on no facts, so i won't even bother disputing with you."

This is how one gets in trouble for lying at Hyde
(at least in 1976). Some kid is in trouble for
having a "bad attitude", so the Dean of Students
(then Henry Milton) gives the kid a shovel and
orders said kid to dig a 6'x6'x6' hole. Kid digs
said hole. Milton comes out with a tapemeasure
and pronounces the hole to be an inch too big
or an inch too small. Kid is LYING. So kid is
ordered to fill in hole and dig it again (and
again and again and again).

A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.
-- William James

[tommyfromhyde1]

Just to give you all a sense of some proportion,
I'm not saying that Hyde's "as bad" as some of
the sicker programs discussed on this board but
they're bad enough. Call 'em a 4 or 5 on the
abuse-o-meter with Straight,Inc or WWASPS as
a baseline 10. And if the kids don't brainwash
easy then there's always the threat of WWASPS
or wilderness which wasn't a threat back in '76.
 Also in retrospect maybe the guy who said that
work crew doesn't last as long as it used to may
be right, they seem to have other threats now.
In addition to the harsher program threat someone
way up the thread said something about "outpost"
which I never heard of then. If anyone can give
more detail about that please post.
 This link's been posted previously but it's way
down page now so... *bump*
http://www.strugglingteens.com/news/let ... 41107.html
Thanks Deborah, you found that one before I did.
The part about the seminars should sound familiar
to many here. I was once ripped to shreds in
seminar because I had come in ahead of another
unathletic kid who had a cold or something in
a cross country meet.
The gist of that was that I had unfairly taken
advantage of this kid's cold to avoid the cold
shower that was the lot of the last Hyde kid
across the line (usually me). We were running
against Phillips/Exeter and lost so there was
alot of acrimony anyway. Shame on Exeter and the
rest of the traditional boarding schools for
lending their hard won respectability to a
punitive boarding school like Hyde by playing
them in sports. Hyde's been known to punish kids
for losing at sports.  

No drug, not even alcohol, causes the fundamental ills of society. If we're looking for the sources of our troubles, we shouldn't test people for drugs, we should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed and love of power.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0679737898/circlofmiamithem' target='_new'>P. J. O'Rourke

[Oppositional Defiance]

I attended Hyde Woodstock from the years of 1999 to 2002 and I can attest that everything said about Hyde here is true. There are no embellishments. The truth is enough in this situation. The staff were incompetent, the teaching was inadaquete, well meaning teachers commonly became disgruntled and eventually left. Poor quality individuals would not leave, "bleeding" the school of anybody who would treat the children there decently year after year. The children there suffered from neglect and abuse from being left alone in a cruel beurocracy. It was like Oliver Twist. A child left in the Hyde School was basically left there to fend for him or herself. To truly succeed in Hyde meant to disregard information coming from teachers, peers, and all "morality" being pushed at you. To succeed, one would have to create a barrier between oneself and the rest of the "world". There was no other world but Hyde. It was isolated. Nothing came in and nothing went out. It was very hard sometimes for me. I was sent to this program after being sent to CEDU's ASCENT program. I wish I could kill some of these people who were in charge with a big M4 rifle sometimes. Anyway, Semper Fi, carry on.

O-P-P
(Yeah, you know me)