A group of Hyde School alumni say they were subjected to "systematic and severe" abuse while attending the private boarding school in Bath. The former students are making their claims in a class-action lawsuit.
The suit, first reported by the Portland Press Herald, alleges the school has operated as an "authoritarian system" that encourages students to surveil and report on each other, and uses forced labor and food deprivation as punishment.
The lawsuit's only named plaintiff, Jessica Fuller, attended Hyde from 2014 to 2015. Fuller alleges she was physically restrained with excessive force, compelled to exercise until she collapsed, and subjected to emotional abuse.
Fuller's attorneys are seeking class-action status on behalf of who they say are more than 100 former students who have experienced similar abuse.
In written statement, Board of Governors chair Dana McAvity said Hyde "vehemently denies" the claims in the lawsuit, calling the claims either gross mischaracterizations of the school's policies or patently false.
