Hyde School Honors Graduate Ryan Zwick on the WCME Midcoast Morning Buzz

“I was never a victim—but I did have to play the game to survive.” — Ryan Zwick, Hyde School graduate, 2015

It’s a subject on many lips and in many heads these days–and over time, we hope to hear a number of viewpoints and perspectives from those who have been up close and personal with Hyde School, which is now on the receiving end of a lawsuit charging abuse of students at Hyde.

I was never a victim—but I did have to play the game to survive.

At Hyde Woodstock campus in 2013-2015 I quickly learned the cost of resistance: “2 to 4” — two to four days of manual labor, aka being sent “out to work.” Whether it was raking endless leaves or scrubbing floors, it was all designed as punishment under the guise of “character building.”

I became trusted not because I believed in the system, but because I followed their rules to protect myself. I played their game so well that they had something called the Dean’s Program I was invited into—a group made up of students who excelled academically and showed consistent “good behavior.” We were promised opportunities, respect, and privileges. But looking back, it was gaslighting at its finest.

Once a week, we’d meet and be fed hope. In return, we were tasked with monitoring and reporting on the very kids who had been sent out to work. We supervised them as they did janitorial and grounds work—sometimes alongside them, sometimes just watching. We were unknowingly being used to enforce the very system we were trying to survive.

It wasn’t empowerment. It was control dressed up as leadership. And for many of us, we’re only now unpacking what that really meant.

The deans Program students only worked during off time hours of staff.