Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform > Hyde Schools
PLEASE HELP!!! Should I send my son to Hyde???
Ursus:
--- Quote from: "molly" ---Thanks so much to everyone who has replied.
I showed this forum to my husband who is very pro-Hyde based upon the therapist's recommendation. My husband feels that because most of the threads are a few years old that Hyde must have changed and that the people who abused the students are probably gone.
Does anyone know whether Hyde is still as compromised as it was a few years ago or has it changed course and become a humanistic, welcoming and yet academically rigorous place? If it has not changed appreciably, I can probably dissuade my husband from pursuing it further.
Thanks so much.
Molly
--- End quote ---
I should qualify what I'm about to say as to a personal bias against Hyde School, based on my personal (and ultimately quite negative) experience there, so please feel free to take what I say with a healthy grain of salt.
There are many reasons why people may have opted not to update information, which include personal intimidation and Hyde's highly acclaimed peer pressure occurring behind the scenes. Let's not forget the emotional blackmail — all those dirty little secrets that kids and their parents are "pressured" into "discussing" in group. Although, it must also be said that some folk really get off on that stuff, and find that it gives their lives more "meaning." Just sayin' !
As to Hyde metamorphizing into "a humanistic, welcoming and yet academically rigorous place," I'll eat my best bear suit, if that proves to be the case.
The thing is, a place like Hyde operates under the dictates of a particular ideology. That ideology has not changed. The key Administration, many of who were indoctrinated in the system while they themselves were Hyde students, has changed but little. Whether or not particular lower echelon staff are or are not still there ... says more about the staff turnover rate than it says anything about conditions conducive or not conducive to abuse.
Ursus:
--- Quote from: "molly" ---Dear Inculcated,
He did not read the entire threads but dismissed them because he was concerned that they contained outdated information. I am taking the lead in the research but my husband still has a vote and his vote is likely to be buttressed by the therapist's perception that Hyde is an excellent school. I should have noted that the therapist has stated that he is currently treating Hyde students and that the school has done them a world of good. I'll try to locate the other websites that you mentioned.
Thanks so much!
Molly
--- End quote ---
Just curious, Molly, 'bout how your son's therapist is "currently treating Hyde students," when your inference in your first post above is that you reside nowhere near either of Hyde's two boarding school campuses?
I take it that this therapist is not treating students recovering from the aftermath of Hyde School (of which, incidentally, there are not a few)?
Does this therapist receive a referral fee for each student shipped off to Hyde? Does his own kid or other relative currently attend, or had attended previously? Jes askin' !
If I were you, I'd get a second opinion before committing to a decision, one way or the other. Moreover, I'd certainly ask your son's current therapist as to exactly what his connections to Hyde School are. It can't hurt to know...
Oscar:
I would certainly hesitate.
Recently we had a downing accident with 13 students and 2 teachers from a Danish boarding school. Due to a massive rescue involving half of our helicopter rescue force all but one teacher was rescued.
They went out in a boat not suited to open and icy waters. They had only normal clothes and a swim vest on. 6 ended up in coma and all were hospitalized for a period. The students seem to survive.
Everybody with just a little knowledge think that it is certain suicide to go out without survival suit when there are in face ice on the ocean.
Still the students think that their teacher is a hero. Despite the stay in hospital the parents would not hesitate to send their children off again.
Everyone involved with the school thinks that it was OK to go out that day. How can you create a group of students highly motivated to participate in a suicide mission?
The answer: Isolation.
During the first 3 month they dont have access to cell phones in their dorms and no own laptop with facebook or myspace. Ordinary letters are almost not used in Denmark anymore. Our politicians are considering to change the law so the mailservice can settle with delivering mail 2-3 times per week when it is not commercial.
When you isolate people in a community where everybody is closed and forced to live 24/7 you can very easy create a community where the rules are so different that they would be unaccetable in the normal society. And remember : Lundby Efterskole is not boarding school targeted at at-risk teenagers. Of course some are smuggled into the boarding school by the social services. It is normal for the social services and the courts to hide the past of a student before they present the student to the boarding school, because group homes or youth prisons are costly. They strike a deal with the teenager so it becomes a year in a boarding school with no incidents in return of removing the records. But most of the students are normal teenagers wanting to excel in sports or in outdoor education.
I guess that Hyde for a start would restrict you from communicating with your child freely until your child have caught the Hyde spirit just as Lundby do with their students until they think that they are superhumans.
I would never risk sending my child to a boarding school unless I can communicate with my child every single evening on a cell phone after this incident. Opposite the parents at Lundby who didn't even know that their children were out on the ocean, I want to be able to stop crazy stunts before they happen and potential hurt my child.
I don't know your child, but I guess that you are strong enough to withstand his pleas even when they come uncensored to you through a cell phone. Then why not choose a normal boarding school where you can talk to your child without a staff member present?
Some of parents down at Lundby have started to understand what they have allowed to happen. They have doubts about their decision to allow boarding school in the first place. However, it could have been to late for them. Don't make their mistake.
Inculcated:
--- Quote from: "molly" ---Dear Inculcated,He did not read the entire threads but dismissed them because he was concerned that they contained outdated information. I am taking the lead in the research but my husband still has a vote and his vote is likely to be buttressed by the therapist's perception that Hyde is an excellent school. I should have noted that the therapist has stated that he is currently treating Hyde students and that the school has done them a world of good. I'll try to locate the other websites that you mentioned. Thanks so much! Molly
--- End quote ---
Ah, I see. Well, I suppose that gang rape mentioned on the Hyde School is Hell on earth link is so four years ago.
Excerpted from the wall post:
--- Quote ---…one of the girls in my wing got gang-raped and mccrann told everyone if we said anything to our parents we would be in more trouble than we'd ever known. obviously i told my parents, and look what happened? mccrann got fired…
--- End quote ---
The good news is that McCrann was reportedly fired. (That was a prudent move as the word got out anyway.) The bad news is that there was a gang rape and staff tried to exhort the students to conceal knowledge of this from their parents. The news that is relevant to your situation is that while no mention in this case of whether the victim was accused by staff of being culpable makes it a somewhat atypical example of how Hyde has chosen to deal with such crimes over the years—the attempted cover up with threats to the students is not an unfamiliar theme.
How’s that for character building?
I think the other posters have pretty much raised the other pointed concerns about the therapist’s recommendation of Hyde School for your child w/ ADD --that I completely agree that any parent should consider with care.
Ursus:
--- Quote from: "Inculcated" ---The good news is that McCrann was reportedly fired.
--- End quote ---
Fwiw, although Hyde seems to have taken pains to allow that impression, Hyde never fires a good kool-aid guzzler. Perhaps over administrative power struggles, yes, absolutely. But for "minor" transgressions and faux pas such as this? Pffft.
The "guilty" party in question might have to go away and ponder great questions such as the meaning of life, the consequences of their actions and what-not, but they're always not only welcome back, but expected back, as long as they're still drinking the kool-aid.
Given that Duncan McCrann's salary plus benefits (not including housing, etc. which was probably free) was roughly $166,000 in 2006, I imagine that he was quite happy to continue drinking the kool-aid. I don't know if he actually even left Hyde, but his role as "Head of School" appears to have ended in the aftermath of this incident.
I've never quite figured out whether such directives were for the supposed benefit of the alleged offender or a savvy public relations move, but I s'pose it all depends on the situation and the personnel involved.
Anyway... Duncan McCrann returned to Hyde, or just assumed other duties at Hyde, shortly after the above incident and was there until 2008 or so (the gang rape was reported to have occurred in 2006). From what I've been able to discern from my research (not having overlapped with the man), he was involved with Hyde Schools for approximately twelve years in one capacity or another, starting in 1996.
In 2008, he left to become President and COO of the Houston area location of the KIPP Charter School network (another nightmare of but slightly different hue), leaving earlier this year to form his own EdCon firm, "specializing in school growth, mangagement and operations." Apparently not specializing in spelling. [Right... Rip me for my standards for what an "education professional" puts on their online resumé. I should be so honored. :D ]
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