Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform > Hyde Schools

PLEASE HELP!!! Should I send my son to Hyde???

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Inculcated:
It pains me to read accounts such as the one quoted above, it also causes me a genuine anguish to view the attempts at revisionist histories of these places that minimize harsh and unconscionable cruelties meted out there as naïveté (in a blame it on the zeitgeist sort of way) or to hear claims of progress that glancingly acknowledge what they’ve long tried to justify and then to simply minimize...
These small acknowledgments in the then and now context reframing of the persistent and no less insidious legacy of these methods as *progress* are the lies of program propaganda.
True the shaving of heads is not so commonplace anymore, but blatant humiliations and still severe and punitive pressures disguised as therapeutics and character building are common tactics that persist throughout. So many of these places continue to operate with such methods in part precisely because of the inescapable ease with which they offer an effectively executed short term appearance of change
(at long lasting expense including PTSD), and in part because those who inflict or abet/allow them are too blind to see that they are not any less damaging they’ve just gotten more sophisticated.

molly:
It has been a horrifying experience for me to read so many posts about the bizarre and rampant cruelty at Hyde.  As a parent seeking a healing school for my son, I had to read the first nine pages of Google results to find this website.  On the first two pages of results are many positive evaluations from parents and former students.  I'm wondering whether it might not be helpful for people who are now out of harm's way to describe their experiences on these more readily searchable sites that actively ask for reviews.  Maybe parents would think twice about sending their children to Hyde if they had access to some of what has been described here.

Thanks to everyone for all of the help you've given me.

Molly

Ursus:

--- Quote from: "molly" ---It has been a horrifying experience for me to read so many posts about the bizarre and rampant cruelty at Hyde.  As a parent seeking a healing school for my son, I had to read the first nine pages of Google results to find this website.  On the first two pages of results are many positive evaluations from parents and former students.  I'm wondering whether it might not be helpful for people who are now out of harm's way to describe their experiences on these more readily searchable sites that actively ask for reviews.  Maybe parents would think twice about sending their children to Hyde if they had access to some of what has been described here.

Thanks to everyone for all of the help you've given me.

Molly
--- End quote ---
"Negative reviews" have a way of "disappearing" from some of those sites, Molly. The institution or program complains and it is removed. Many of those review sites are even run by the programs themselves or groups of programs and allow only certain material on their sites. I'm not saying they all are, but enough are ... to dampen the enthusiasm of those wishing to tell their story.

Lon Woodbury, who runs Struggling Teens, is famous for such editorial activity. He used to run a forum on his site (perhaps still does, although, if so, it's no longer open to the public), and posts which portrayed one of these programs in a negative light, no matter how respectful or devoid of "inflammatory language," were excised quite quickly.

Hyde is especially canny when it comes to gaming the public relations and marketing scene. They spend a lot of money and time on it. They have many many blogs, all pretty much posting the same material, but by different bloggers. Many of their "articles" and "press reviews" consist of much of the same material chopped and rearranged so as to appear "new." Perhaps a few sentences in the opener refer to some recent newsworthy event, but the rest of the piece is merely the same old same old rearranged to relate how Hyde is the answer to whatever societal ill the news makes reference to.

I'm sure that Hyde employs the services of a firm like "Reputation Defender" or similar to help sanitize their image and boost the positive material over the negative on search engines. The sheer volume of their blogs is certainly part of that. Hyde and/or their apologists have also managed to block certain material on fornits from even appearing on a google. You can use a direct quote of material you know is here, perhaps even the thread title, put quotation marks around it, and Google will not be able to find it.

But thank you for your suggestion. There are a couple people here trying to get something like that underway. Mostly it's a question of trust. Achieving the state of being "out of harm's way" is a highly subjective criterion. What with long term PTSD, fear of reprisal from program advocates, not to mention assorted other effects, recovery from one's program experience takes considerably longer than the average person, not familiar with the insidious culty nature of this industry, could possibly even begin to imagine.

deslock:
Dear Molly,

I was in no way a perfect teen, but Hyde definitely helped me become a worse adult. The people who founded that school care about their own agenda, children are merely a means to that end and nothing more.

I suggest that you spend your money on enhancing your son's life with exposure to music, art, sports,(with good coaching), travel, and meeting good kids in his age range. When you stick a kid in any boarding school, you abandon control of his day to day life and learning to strangers, some better than others. Just don't do it. Don't become a stranger to your son, remain a parent. Be consistent with rules, but also be consistent in paying attention to his changing needs.

Also, consider getting a new therapist for your son. Anyone who would suggest an extreme solution such as Hyde must have a screw loose themselves.

Best,

A

momanddad:
Please DO NOT send your child to Hyde!  This and other websites are full of passionate, thoughtful statements by parents who regret having sent their child to Hyde.  Many, many educational consultants refuse to refer teens to Hyde; they have learned about the intense controversy surrounding the school.  Many professionals question Hyde's draconian, outdated, and simplistic methods.  There are many reputable alternatives.  Please find an educational consultant who is knowledgeable.  I'd be suspicious of any educational consultant who would refer to Hyde.  Hyde has been the subject of intense criticism in a number of professional publications.

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