Author Topic: "Joe Gauld still loose?" Maine Times Reader response 1992  (Read 3348 times)

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Offline survivorami

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"Joe Gauld still loose?" Maine Times Reader response 1992
« on: December 08, 2021, 02:58:54 PM »
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 Center." Every student and his or her parents is required to attend one of these every year. This is a group consisting of about 10 students and their families and starts Thursday afternoon and runs through Sunday night Friday, Saturday and Sunday are filled with about 14 to 16 hours of meetings per day. Joe tries to get all parents to stay on campus during this marathon, I guess for even more psychological control. Joe says these are learning sessions but they seem like pure brainwashing to me. From the moment a parent enters the campus for one of these sessions, Joe tries to exercise total control over everything that parent does or thinks. I think parents attend these sessions and debase themselves only because they are so desperate to keep their children out of jail or the street. I saw no real benefit to these marathon sessions.

I have had experience with a number of other schools and various institutions and I've never seen as bad vandalism as I have at Hyde School. One time I was there and saw the boys bathroom in the common building. Somebody had totally trashed it There was rolls of toilet paper in each toilet, wet toilet paper rolls over the floor, and water everywhere. Somebody was unhappy! If Joe and the school really had any respect at all for them I don't think the students would react so badly. In talking to many of the students and parents privately, they would admit they were just "playing the game" so they could stay there. In school meetings they would totally debase themselves to please Joe or the staff. They would say and do anything (and also keep quiet about obvious injustice). There seems to be no respect anywhere at the school from anybody toward anybody.

In two years' association with that school I have seen Joe give his rambling two or three hour talk about the school's founding and his own brilliance so many times it is unbelievable. No matter what he was supposed to be talking about or how short his remarks were supposed to be, he would quickly lapse into that same, rambling, pointless story about his own greatness and the founding of Hyde and how his son Malcolm had stolen a watch when he young and on and on and on.

In our first year there, Joe seemed to have much lacking and be making an extremely poor effort at what he was supposedly doing but he was in control and seemed functional. The second year Joe seemed to be almost all the way around the bend. Malcolm was openly being groomed to fill his shoes and I seriously thought Joe would be institutionalized within a year or two. I feel so sorry for any parents and students there. I would strongly, and in all seriousness, urge all parents, school faculties, etc. to investigate this man very thoroughly before having anything to do with him. Talk to former students, parents, faculty members, etc.

Otaries E. Provonchee Unionwas

Maine Times 1992-09-04

https://archive.org/details/sim_maine-times_1992-09-04_24_48


« Last Edit: December 08, 2021, 03:07:17 PM by survivorami »