I wrote the post about child abuse to which you responded. For reference, I'll identify myself as Mike.
I wouldn't go so far as to say that child abuse was status quo at Hyde. There were abusers and there were nonabusers. The former I shunned and the latter, teachers like Bud Warren, Sumner Hawley, and Ed Legg, I respected. I guess this distinction was the beginning of my education in child abuse, when I first realized there existed an alternative to it.
Like you, I witnessed my share of child abuse at Hyde, and determined early on not to be a victim of it. No doubt, this strongly conditioned my behavior in ways that did not serve Hyde's objectives. For me, it meant avoiding certain staff members and resisting situations of vulnerability.
Of the three former staff members you mention, only Bud Warren still has my respect. I did appreciate Sumner's intellect, and he did have a certain sympathy for the underdog, however effete, but he was not someone you could depend on to be good to his word. Perhaps I am too harsh on him; I think he was a bit of a closeted fellow, so to speak, and only his age and academic credentials, not to mention his longstanding friendship with Joe (?), bought him a certain unassailability from close scrutiny. Ed Legg was one cold fish in my book. Remorseless, relentless. And really obsessed with prurient sins. I am not gay, but I can remember thinking -- during the countless school meetings where he pontificated at length about this subject -- that surely there were greater so-called evils to be concerned about. I can't remember whether he used the word "abomination" or not, but his message was certainly in keeping with that. I do remember him saying homosexuality was "unnatural" and indicative that of not dealing honestly with one's self, and some things far more extreme that I should probably not put into print.
Of abuse at Hyde, I think verbal and psychological abuse were most sanctioned and condoned -- all in the name of the cause. However, there were also instances of sports injuries and work crew injuries which were not taken seriously or attended to (character development, hah!), as well as sexual infractions alluded to and discussed elsewhere in this forum. And I think this does happen when people hold themselves above judgement and standards of the norm. Moreover, there were many personal axe grinders...
What was so insidious and so debilitating in the long run, was the accompanying caveat that if you did not make it at Hyde, you would never make it anywhere. How many suicides and attempts at such is this caveat responsible for? I can remember one former student calling up during study hall on the verge of doing it (his mother could not afford to send him anymore, and the school was unenthusiastic about his return, probably as a result), and he was distraught and filled with impending doom over this judgement that he did not have enough "commitment"... No one ever brought up the fact that this was an inner city kid, single mom (?), probably got a local scholarship for the first year but there was no more where that come from, and that there was a cultural and economic disconnect that was in no small part at the heart of the school vs. parent impasse. Nothing to do with the kid's so called committment (but then, in a strange twist on convention, we kids were often blamed for our parents' alleged shortcomings). ...The study hall proctor took the call and, not knowing what to do, passed the phone around to the rest of us (students) who happened to be standing there, and some of us tried to talk to him... The guy was crying. I wish I knew what happened to him. I think his name was Daryl.
