A former student of the Hyde School in Bath is suing the private boarding school and members of the Gauld family who operate it, alleging she and other students were subjected to forced labor and emotional abuse.
Jessica Fuller, who now lives in Palm Beach County, Florida, is the named plaintiff in the suit, which was filed in U.S. District Court in Maine by her attorneys, the Maine-based Island Justice Law and the Massachusetts-based Justice Law Collaborative.
Her attorneys are seeking class-action status to include students at Hyde School who they allege engaged in forced labor starting in July 2015.
Fuller was 16 when she began attending Hyde in July 2014. She left the school in February 2015.
The 47-page court filing says the school — founded by Joseph Gauld in 1966 — claims to offer a character development curriculum designed to help troubled students. Instead, it alleges the school operates as a “systematic child exploitation scheme.”
The six counts in the lawsuit allege trafficking, forced labor and negligence. It asks the court to seize all the defendants’ assets, including real estate, financial accounts and business interests.
The suit names Head of School Laura Gauld, her husband, Executive Director Malcolm Gauld, and several other members of the Gauld family as defendants.
According to the Portland Press Herald, which first reported the lawsuit, Dana McCavity, chair of Hyde’s board of governors, wrote in a letter to the school community Friday that the lawsuit’s claims “grossly mischaracterize Hyde’s policies and practices over time or are patently false.”