Lawsuit: Fuller vs. Hyde School 2025
Class Action Complaint for Child Labor Trafficking and Abuse
Who’s Involved
- Plaintiff:
Jessica Fuller, on behalf of herself and similarly situated former students - Defendants:
Hyde School; Laura Gauld; Malcolm Gauld; Georgia Gauld MacMillan; Don MacMillan; Laurie Gauld Hurd - Lawyers:
Plaintiff: John Steed (Island Justice Law), Kelly Guagenty & Kimberly Dougherty (Justice Law Collaborative) - Judge:
(Not yet assigned)
Case Details
- Type of Case:
Civil – Child labor trafficking, abuse, fraud, negligence - Date Filed:
July 11, 2025 - Jurisdiction:
Federal (TVPRA) and Maine state law - Status:
Active – Seeking class certification and injunctive relief - Court:
U.S. District Court for the District of Maine - Case Number:
2:25-cv-00354-NT
What’s the Case About?
Jessica Fuller, a former student, alleges that Hyde School operated as a cult-like system of forced labor and psychological abuse disguised as “character education.” She claims students were emotionally and physically abused, denied medical care, and forced into unpaid labor to benefit school leadership.
Key Claims
- Use of forced labor under threat and deprivation (TVPRA §§1584, 1589, 1590)
- Systematic emotional abuse, racial and sexual slurs, and public humiliation
- Physical punishments including assault, excessive exercise, and starvation
- Students forced to clean campus, staff homes, and remote wilderness properties
- Hyde leadership personally profited from student exploitation
- Deceptive marketing to desperate families seeking help for their children
Evidence Filed
- Firsthand account from Jessica Fuller
- Descriptions of Hyde’s policies, including “Brother’s Keeper” and “2-4” punishment systems
- Documentation of forced labor at Seguin Island and Eustis wilderness center
- Financial records showing executive salaries and nonprofit income
- Historical quotes and writings from founder Joseph Gauld promoting abuse
Why It Matters
This case could set national precedent for holding private residential programs accountable under federal trafficking laws. It also sheds light on decades of unregulated abuse in elite “character schools” and the profits made by those in power.
Read and download the full complaint:
Trigger Warnings: graphic accounts of physical abuse, sexual abuse (peer coercion with staff complicity), restraint and isolation, forced labor and starvation, racist and misogynistic slurs
Fuller vs. Hyde School
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In the News
Hyde boarding school accused of abusing students, forced manual labor
A federal lawsuit filed Friday details allegations of forced labor and emotional abuse at the nearly 60-year-old private boarding school in Bath that advertises a character-based education.
www.pressherald.com
