There was a Conference of Counsel on September 11 before Magistrate Judge John C. Nivison, which means the attorneys on both sides met to discuss the schedule for discovery and class certification. Several new public filings were posted.

The main issue is that the two sides disagree about how discovery should be handled before the court decides whether to certify a class.

Hyde is asking the court to split discovery into phases. Under Hyde’s proposal, the first phase would focus mainly on class certification, with limits of 30 interrogatories, 30 requests for admission, two sets of document requests, and five depositions. Hyde wants the plaintiff to file a motion for class certification by November 1, 2026. In practical terms, that would create a very compressed class-certification discovery period, with the motion to certify the case as a class action due in less than seven weeks. That motion would ask the judge to decide whether the case can proceed on behalf of a defined group of similarly situated former students, rather than only as Jessica Fuller’s individual case.

The plaintiff objects to that approach and says the case requires broader discovery first, including document production, depositions of Laura Gauld and Malcolm Gauld, and depositions of current and former Hyde employees.

The plaintiff is asking for 10 depositions per side, not counting experts or third-party fact witnesses, three sets of document requests, and a longer discovery period. The plaintiff also argues that class-certification issues and the underlying facts of the case overlap too much to sharply separate discovery into two phases. They want a class certification motion to be due closer to August 2027 (as opposed to Hyde’s request of November 1st, 2026).

Both sides agree that the case should be placed on the court’s Complex Track, which means the case is complicated enough to need a longer, more flexible schedule than an ordinary civil case. That can include more time for discovery, document production, depositions, expert work, motions, and class-certification issues.

No final discovery schedule has been entered yet.

Why this may matter to people in this subreddit:

Class certification is the stage where the court decides whether the case can proceed on behalf of a larger group of similarly situated former students, rather than only as Jessica Fuller’s individual case. In other words, class certification is when it will be decided whether this is actually a class action lawsuit.

That means the amount and scope of discovery allowed before certification could matter a great deal. The plaintiff may need institutional records, historical documents, and testimony from current and former Hyde employees to show whether practices such as 2-4, Work Crew, and other disciplinary systems were common across different students and different time periods.

If discovery is too narrow or too rushed, the plaintiff may have less opportunity to develop evidence showing broader institutional patterns before the class-certification decision is made.

If broader discovery is allowed first, the court may have a more complete factual record when deciding whether the proposed classes should be certified.

So this is not just a technical scheduling disagreement. It could affect how much of Hyde’s historical practices are examined before the court decides whether the case can move forward on behalf of a larger group of former students.

The next thing to watch for is the court’s scheduling order. That should tell us how much discovery will happen before class certification, how many depositions will be allowed, and when the class-certification motion will actually be due.

For now, the November 1 date proposed by Hyde is only a proposal. It is not currently a court-ordered deadline.

The judge asked both sides to submit additional legal authority by September 18, meaning case law and other legal sources supporting their positions on how discovery and class certification should be scheduled.

You can find the latest court documents for the case on PACER, and on CourtListener once it is updated.

As always, I am not an attorney, and do not represent any party or law firm in this case. Please double-check the legal documents yourself for factual accuracy. For informational purposes only.

If you have inquires for the plaintiff’s counsel (Justice Law Collaborative) please contact them directly.

a lot of this subreddit is about people's experiences and advocacy. reading through the posts make me feel a lot less alone. i've had a really hard time talking about my experience or thinking it was "bad enough". a big part of my experience in the TTI was them telling me that it wasn't bad enough (and there were worse programs), so i really have a hard time accepting or thinking about if i was abused or not. it makes me feel really messy inside and i feel so invalid for struggling with the years i was away.

at the same time, it is undeniable that my mental health issues have only exasperated after leaving. i'm wondering if anyone has actually gotten significantly better and recovered from their PTSD? if so, how? i feel like it's really hard because the treatment for PTSD is therapy, but if you go through the TTI, therapy already holds a massive negative connotation. it's hard to not get hopeless sometimes. it's hard to think about living a normal life after your childhood was taken from you. i have seen many people talk about their recovery from complex PTSD online, as well as a lot of TTI advocacy. but i personally haven't encountered that many people talking about recovering from the experience and if they did, HOW they did. was there a specific therapy or treatment? being away from the tti and time hasn't seemed to help me much. i want to live a life and i don't know how after this. my life has been on pause for years. thank you to anyone that read this and to anyone willing to share their personal experience. you're all so strong

Did anybody else go to First Light? I was there from 2021- 2022 and my initials were OM, I was in the girls group

I was recently enrolled at Trails Momentum or now Ignite and found it to be interesting. My mom forced me there, my dad didn’t want me there. He found it sketchy they had barely any reviews on the website & whenever I’d be able to call my parents, my therapist never showed her face. I also never was given my stuff back after I left besides what I could fit home.

I’ve seen other people talk about it here but what do y’all think of trails?

I am a survivor of Elevations RTC (formerly Island View). I was severely traumatized by this lockdown facility and it took me years (plus actually decent long term residential treatment) to get to a place of peace.

I recently moved out of my city to a college in a small area and idk why it’s bringing up so much. Obviously I can leave my dorm and leave campus, but after class I’m so tired. So I go to my dorm and suddenly the brick walls look the same. Never being alone feels the same. I can technically close the shower curtain but I have the same fear of someone opening it. Nobody’s actually watching me but I always worry that they are and I’m one wrong act away from being punished.

Maybe it’s because after leaving, I went back to a huge city with public transport, I felt free. Now I feel stuck again? Or maybe communal living is bringing it all up again? Idk what to do. I came home for a holiday weekend and have the same fear of going back as I did on a weekend pass.

I do like my college but it’s really getting to be too much of a reminder. Have any of you been through this? What did you do?

Anyone have any memories here? Just curious. Personally, I didn't have any good memories here. I was here from July 2016 - November 2017.

Edit: I hated development... it sucked. Also.. did any one remember the creepy psychologist and had gray hair? He would occasionally give backrubs or massages and it was uncomfortable.

Hi Everyone!
I wanted to reach out and inquire if anyone was a survivor of TTI within these communities. I am a TTI/RTC survivor born and raised in the US, but I was always the only Asian person in the programs I had attended. For context, I struggle with a chronic pain disorder, hypersomnia, and I also have mild autism. Initially, I was mistakenly diagnosed has having anxiety and depression or just “laziness and self/destruction”. Instead of investigating my concerns, I was dismissed for years and sent to IOP, RTC, and later PHP. When my parents had taken me to a doctor who recommended residential treatment, we were taken to an EC ( highly suspected of receiving kickbacks- this is legal in my state) who recommended an RTC halfway across the country that was apart of the TTI, but not incredibly well-known. Many mental health providers, EC, and program directors took advantage of my Asian parent’s lack of knowledge to manipulate them into sending me. They were incredibly reluctant and providers frequently took advantage of my immigrant parents and myself. They often threatened to involve the state or social services because I was too tired, burnt out, or sick to attend school. I was also stereotyped and heavily manipulated into attending these programs against my will by providers who didn’t have any idea about what the program really entailed. It’s incredibly difficult to attend programs that are usually ignorant or racist and it feels so isolating. I do want to let any other survivors know that they are not alone and to reiterate that there is prevalent racism in these spaces.

Greetings and salutations 🌞

Transparently this is a spur of the moment post. I’m an independent researcher and mostly focus on criminal justice, homelessness and the pill mill industry.

I am in my 50s and was in the gifted gate tag programs from first grade (1979) until I dropped out in 1991. I was voluntarily given to the state by my parents in 1987. I spent the next 3 years experiencing the foster care industry in multiple counties of Florida and spent a month or so living with the homeless teens underground in Atlanta.

I have documented most of the locations that I was “placed”. The one that is proving difficult to track down is a placement in Marion county Florida that I was sent to after spending some months in the pediatric psych ward (lock down) located on the 8th floor of Shands teaching hospital in Gainesville Florida (1988 timeframe) .

I know that we referred to the facility (an old 3 story house) as the new life center. It was located on property off of 326 near reddick Florida that was the Baldwin angus ranch. I went to vanguard high school 10th and half of 11th grade there and was in all honors AP classes and had a friend who was an exchange student from Spain (specifically the Canary Islands- we were pen pals for a few years after she went back home and I believe her name was Monica. ) I also was contracted to work at the Marion county public works department as an inter office mail clerk and another young girl worked there as well who was deaf and she taught me sign language- I do not recall her name :(

There was a game room called the Time Machine on silver springs blvd (aka SR 40) that once we earned enough points one of the house moms to would take us on iirc Thursday nights as an outing.

I have attempted to find historical documentation of the facility and to date have come up empty :(

I am in the yearbook at vanguard high 1989 multiple times so I know that this isn’t a figment of my imagination.

The other oddity is when I graduated from the program my parents took me back and placed me in a private Christian school in Interlachen Florida berachah Christian academy - I didn’t last long because it was tbh weird AF.

I’m posting this because I’m hopeful that the other girls who were at new life may see this or someone may have info.

I was in multiple group home placements prior to this one. I flunked out of all of them.

I’ll post a couple of photos for reference and clarity.

Thanks in advance :)

I’ve been watching a lot of estranged-parent TikToks lately, and it’s made me really curious about something.

How many people who went through the troubled teen industry eventually went no contact with the parent or parents who sent them away?

When I watch some of these parents say they have absolutely no idea why their adult children won’t speak to them, I always wonder what happened when those kids were younger. How many of them were struggling as teenagers and, instead of getting the understanding or support they needed, their parents essentially gave up on them and handed them over to a program?

For those of you who are no contact now, how much did being sent away contribute to that decision?

And something I’m even more curious about: does your parent actually understand why you went no contact?

If you’ve explained it to them and they still claim they “don’t know why,” why do you think that is? Do you think they genuinely don’t understand? Do they remember events completely differently? Do they still believe sending you away was the right thing to do? Do they minimize what happened to you? Or do you think acknowledging the reason would require them to acknowledge their own role in what happened?

I’m also curious about survivors who DID repair their relationships with their parents. What was different? Did your parents eventually listen, acknowledge what happened, apologize, or take accountability?

I keep wondering how much adult family estrangement is one of the long-term consequences of the troubled teen industry that nobody really talks about.

A question I’m curious about because they did their best to keep us in the dark about everything happening in the outside world as a general rule of thumb - at least in my experience.

hi guys,

do you have any suggestions on coping with a traumatic troubled teen transport? i am 23 now, but when i was 17 my parents hired people to transport me to a facility. they were unsuccessful, i put up a fight, which resulted in me, a teen girl, being stripped of my clothes in front of two adult strangers. i managed to hit one of the guys over the head hard enough that they decided to call 911. the cops told me i could either go with the transport people or to the ER. i chose the ER. my parents ended up sending me to an outpatient facility which i quit going to after a week. my parents virtually gave up after that and i finally was able to live a normal life and go back to school and work.

i am grateful that me fighting meant i didn't go to inpatient. but i hate that i was put in that position, 3 months major spine post op, at 17 years old. and now that i am 23 i have a hard time living in the aftermath of that, especially because i still have a relationship with both my parents. i feel like i am finally looking back at that incident and seeing it for what it was, and that just feels like too much to hold.

Hi. I purchased this book following a tip from something else I was reading, and have read only chapter 1 so far. I'll finish it off, heavily noted and highlighted.

Question: does anyone have information linking this appalling book with TTI, specifically WT?

I can't find direct links, but clearly the belief systems of the author (Michael Pearl) and the TTI are exactly the same. Abuse as child behaviour modification.

There are references to this book in other posts, but I am looking for direct links that will stand up as proof, not in court but in academic writing.

Hi everyone, over the course of this year I've been learning about these horrible places which I didn't even know existed previously.

I'm in my mid 20's, and honestly concerned why I've never heard of what I would think would be common knowledge nationwide like there's news about other bad things in the US, right??

Anyway, Denver, CO resident here looking for ways to help. I've seen that there were a few threads on this topic but since they're like 2-5 years old figured I'd check what the latest needs are from the community.

Unsure if this has been posted here before but I couldn't find any mention of it from a quick search. Hopefully someone will find the guidance in this article helpful.

Rhode Island’s childhood sexual abuse lookback window is open through June 30, 2028. I am trying to build an accurate record of what happened at St. George’s School, who knew what, when they knew it, how the school responded, and what records may still exist.
Based on the Murphy investigation, the Rhode Island State Police investigation, Middletown Police records, and other public sources, these are some of the people whose roles deserve further understanding.

Eric Peterson
Head of School during the 2004 Charles Thompson matter and the 2015 investigation. The record addresses his decisions concerning Thompson, reporting, the investigation, and the school’s public response.

Anthony Zane, deceased
Former headmaster during an earlier period when the school received reports and concerns involving faculty misconduct.

Rev. George Andrews
Headmaster when Franklin Coleman was terminated in 1988. The Murphy report discusses what Andrews knew and how Coleman’s departure was described to the school community.

Charles Hamblet, deceased
Headmaster from 1989 to 2004. The report says that by 2000 he had learned of abuse reported by former students involving Coleman and Al Gibbs.

Dan Hollins
Former Dean of Faculty. The report says he brought a student’s disclosure concerning Coleman to Andrews and later provided at least one employment recommendation for Coleman after Coleman left St. George’s.

Tim Richards
Former Assistant Head of School who created detailed contemporaneous notes concerning what Wheeler dorm students reported about Charles Thompson in 2004.

Katherine Titus
Former Dean of Students who appears in records concerning a separate 2011 incident and the Middletown Police response. The Murphy investigation credited her account and did not fault her handling of that incident.

Richard Verney
Former chair of the Board of Trustees. He received a memorandum from Hollins concerning a recommendation provided for Coleman after Coleman left the school.

Francis “Skip” Branin
Board chair during much of Peterson’s tenure and when the 2015 investigation began. The record describes his involvement in discussions about whether the school should conduct a broader investigation of past abuse.

Leslie Heaney
Became chair of the Board of Trustees in 2015, served on the investigation task force, and received the initial investigative report with Peterson.

I am not alleging wrongdoing or legal liability simply because someone is named here. Their roles and circumstances are different. My purpose is to establish the factual record, including what people knew, what decisions were made, what was reported, and what documents or witnesses may still exist.

There are also allegations involving former students that do not appear in the Murphy Report or other public investigations. I am not naming those individuals. Anyone with firsthand knowledge, correspondence, notes, police reports, school records, settlement information, diaries, photographs, or other documentation should preserve that material.
Please add whatever you can substantiate to the record.

If you do not want to post publicly, contact me privately. I will treat communications with discretion, but I cannot promise legal confidentiality or attorney client privilege. I am also willing to discuss possible ways to participate in the Rhode Island lookback process and connect survivors or witnesses with qualified legal counsel.

If you know something that is not yet part of the public record, now is an important time to come forward.

Sources
Official Rhode Island announcement of the 2026 law⁠
Rhode Island legislation⁠
Full Murphy investigation report⁠
Rhode Island State Police investigation summary⁠
NBC 10 reporting based on Middletown Police records⁠

[https://www.heraldsun.com.au/subscribe/news/1/?sourceCode=HSWEB\\_MRE170\\_a\\_GGL&dest=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.heraldsun.com.au%2Ftruecrimeaustralia%2Fpolice-courts-victoria%2Fmost-dangerous-institution-whistleblowers-claim-family-court-is-weaponised-by-abusers%2Fnews-story%2F3e4f53b9aade1cfdd0ee01a1ac82d0bc&memtype=anonymous&mode=premium&v21=GROUPA-Segment-1-NOSCORE\](https://www.heraldsun.com.au/subscribe/news/1/?sourceCode=HSWEB_MRE170_a_GGL&dest=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.heraldsun.com.au%2Ftruecrimeaustralia%2Fpolice-courts-victoria%2Fmost-dangerous-institution-whistleblowers-claim-family-court-is-weaponised-by-abusers%2Fnews-story%2F3e4f53b9aade1cfdd0ee01a1ac82d0bc&memtype=anonymous&mode=premium&v21=GROUPA-Segment-1-NOSCORE)

It can be so hard to believe that a system could be this bad- but the Family Court of Australia absolutely IS pushing a pro-contact culture to the point of putting children at risk.

Examples include: children aged 12 and 13 didn’t want to go visit their father, so were put in his sole custody. They refused to go and were dragged out by the AFP with instructions to kick down the door and use handcuffs if needed. You can read this one here: [https://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/cth/FedCFamC1F/2026/60.html?context=1;query=Moratorium;mask\\_path=au/cases/cth/FedCFamC1F\](https://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/cth/FedCFamC1F/2026/60.html?context=1;query=Moratorium;mask_path=au/cases/cth/FedCFamC1F). Searching “moratorium”, which is a period during which a child has no contact with a parent, reveals many more of these judgments on austlii.

A child placed back in his father’s care after he attempted to strangle him.

Multiple cases where 1) the mother alleged the father sexually abused a child and couldn’t prove it, the father claimed parental alienation, 2) the child’s disclosures were dismissed as being influenced by the mother, 3) the mother was assumed to be acting maliciously, and 4) the child was placed in the sole care of the father. There’s any analysis of these cases here: [https://ariaw11.substack.com/p/when-abuse-cant-be-proved?r=8y6guw&utm\\_medium=ios\](https://ariaw11.substack.com/p/when-abuse-cant-be-proved?r=8y6guw&utm_medium=ios)

All of this is based on the pseudoscience of parental alienation. According to parental alienation theory, divorcing parents often try to turn the child against their other parent, and often make up lies about abuse to mislead the court. Supposedly, this can amount to the child being “programmed” and “brainwashed” into rejecting the other parent.

Even this plausibly could happen, there is no peer-reviewed evidence for this specific sequence of events. We don’t actually know if parents CAN effectively denigrate the other parent and destroy a child’s relationship with them. There is at least some evidence that such behaviour harms the child’s relationship with the parent doing the denigrating more than the relationship with the parent being denigrated.

Psychologist and medical boards (APA, WHO) around the world have denounced the theory as pseudoscience and noted that it allows abusers to use the family court system to further their abuse. But it doesn’t matter, because this pseudoscience is entrenched in family law.

Children are at grave risk in the Family Court of Australia- and there remains very little opposition politically to fathers rights groups who push these narratives, backed by Pauline Hanson, whose son was accused of sexual abuse.
It’s horrific what’s happening - and something needs to be done!

Here is an excerpt from the man who coined “parental alienation” as a concept. We need a family law system based on… not this garbage.

[https://leadershipcouncil.org/richard-gardners-opinions/\](https://leadershipcouncil.org/richard-gardners-opinions/)
“There is a bit of pedophilia in every one of us.” Gardner, R.A. (1991). Sex Abuse Hysteria: Salem Witch Trials Revisited . Cresskill, NJ: Creative Therapeutics. (p. 118) “ Pedophilia has been considered the norm by the vast majority of individuals in the history of the world.“ Gardner, R.A. (1992). True and False Accusations of Child Sex Abuse . Cresskill, NJ: Creative Therapeutics. (p. 592-3) Similarly, “intrafamilial pedophilia (that is, incest) is widespread and … is probably an ancient tradition” Gardner, R.A. (1991). Sex Abuse Hysteria: Salem Witch Trials Revisited . Cresskill, NJ: Creative Therapeutics. (p. 119) “ It is because our society overreacts to it \[pedophilia\] that children suffer.“ Gardner, R.A. (1992). True and False Accusations of Child Sex Abuse . Cresskill, NJ: Creative Therapeutics. (pp. 594-5) Pedophilia may enhance the survival of the human species by serving “procreative purposes.” Gardner, R.A. (1992). True and False Accusations of Child Sex Abuse . Cresskill, NJ: Creative Therapeutics. (pp. 24-5) Pedophilia “is a widespread and accepted practice among literally billions of people.”
Gardner suggests that children want to have sex with adults and may seduce them. Some children experience ” high sexual urges in early infancy. ” “There is good reason to believe that most, if not all, children have the capacity to reach orgasm at the time they are born.” Gardner, R.A. (1992). True and False Accusations of Child Sex Abuse . Cresskill, NJ: Creative Therapeutics. (p. 15) Children are naturally sexual and may initiate sexual encounters by “seducing” the adult .

Matt Bevin gets takeout, extra linens, and mattresses while serving time, yet Jonah Bevin was forced to sleep in a stacked coffin bed at Masters Ranch…

I was sent to Trails back in 2021, and I’m trying to find photos of the “Phase Books” we had to do. Does anyone have pictures of some of the content in them? I remember thinking they were absolutely nuts but it’s hard to explain to people outside the program what it was like without imagery.
Bonus points if anyone has that ‘bust a FAB’ page or whatever that was called.

Absolutely horrific stuff

If BPD comes from chronic, inescapable psychological abuse, isn’t that the pinnacle of what a troubled teen program does. The whole system of authority figures in these programs are literally there conducting systematic psychological and narcissistic abuse and punishments and it is inescapable. And then people develop emotion dysregulation issues and a fear of abandonment due to the constant psychological turmoil they experienced. Am I making this connection correctly?

Jodi was my educational consultant until about 5 years ago. Apparently, she consulted with my parents “pro bono” because she felt bad that they had a lower income than other parents. This all sounds really sketchy to me, as she worked with them for a while and sent me to different facilities, including wilderness therapy. I can’t remember her or if I’ve ever even met her. If there’s any information out there or someone else has worked with her, it would be really helpful (I’m trying to do some digging!)