As a parent of a current Hyde School student, I lament your paper’s descent into sensationalism in its reporting of the lawsuit filed against the school. If our society equates requiring our children to perform light chores around the house or yard with forced labor trafficking, we should all be evaluating where we lost our common sense along the way.

Many secondary schools claim to offer parents an opportunity for their children to acquire the knowledge and experience necessary to succeed as adults. Some of these schools operate as businesses that collect tuition with only fleeting interest in the well-being of the children under their care.

Results in the classroom and on the athletic fields are primary; the heart and character of the child are seldom measured, nor are they often even evaluated. And let’s hope our young son or daughter, attending such a school, doesn’t step over a line in a lapse of judgment — that stain on the institution’s reputation often results in swift excommunication by expulsion.

The Hyde School offers parents something far more meaningful — the ability to grow with their children in an intensive journey to discover their unique potential in life. Hyde doesn’t give up on its students. Above everything else, it prioritizes character, truth and ethics. In my experience, every single Hyde employee I’ve met shares the goal of mentoring my son and helping him grow into a decent man of values. Our world needs more schools like Hyde.

Peter D. St. Phillip Jr.
Greenwich, Conn.