What was The Academy at Ivy Ridge?
Academy at Ivy Ridge was an independent, privately owned, and operated for-profit disciplinary boarding school in New York. The institution was owned by the Jason G. Finlinson Corporation and the Joseph and Alyn Mitchell Corporation in partnership. The property on which the school stood was purchased in 2001 by Robert Browning Lichfield Family Limited of Utah.
The school opened later that year in affiliation with the World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools (WWASPS). In 2003 the New York Times reported that the school’s director had previously been an administrator at Casa by the Sea, another private residential treatment center in Mexico.
What happened to the Academy at Ivy Ridge?
The Academy at Ivy Ridge (abbreviated as AIR) began admitting students in 2001. According to reports, the institution had 460 students enrolled by the spring of 2005. Reports suggest that the students started revolting in May of 2005 which resulted in expulsion and arrests.
The AIR faced allegations of abuse including poor living conditions, unauthorized medical procedures, psychological torture, sexual abuse, and physical abuse. Videos obtained from the school demonstrate violent restraint tactics used against students.
In March 2009 it was announced that Ivy Ridge would close until fall 2009 to restructure. There were about 60 students enrolled at that time; they were to be sent home or transferred to similar boarding schools. In April 2009, the campus was sold to a Delaware corporation, and a spokesperson for the purchaser told news media that the school would not reopen.
What happened in the Academy at Ivy Ridge’s – ‘The Program’?
The Netflix documentary, The Program: Cons, Cults, and Kidnapping narrates former student testimonies of the nature of abuse that took place at AIR. The students discuss how they were emotionally, physically, and mentally as well as sexually abused by the people who run the facility. Students share details of how they were enrolled into a home-school program while being a part of this “correction program”.
The former students also narrate how they had no formal education and were forced to retake online tests over and over again with no external help from a teacher who educated them. On the contrary, these students were forced to take on seminars that brainwashed and groomed them into behaving a certain way.
The institutionalized abuse which took place in the Academy at Ivy Ridge went on for years and the students share in the documentary how their parents had been programmed by the facility which caused them to let their children be “abducted” into the cult. The programming went on to the extent that the parents refused to take their children back home despite learning the truth about the abuse that took place in the school.
Where are the students from the Academy at Ivy Ridge now?
After the facility was sued by various past students for widespread abuses, many former students visited the abandoned facility. In 2009, the alumni of the AIR found extensive records of abuse filed and recorded at the facility. Various lawsuits against Ivy Ridge, including testimony from students, are documented in the Netflix docuseries.
Many of the former students of the Academy share their lived experiences through The Program: Cons, Cults and Kidnapping, which you can check out on Netflix.
What do you think of the Academy at Ivy Ridge? What are your thoughts on the cult that inspired Netflix’s The Program? Let us know in the comments below.
I had not heard of the Academy of Ivy Ridge until I watched the Netflix
series. I was mortified, disgusted, horrified, and sick to my stomach.
It was a travesesty to say the least! These people must be held accountable for what they did and need to hung! How can you put your head on a pillow and actually feel good about what you have done?
My heart hurts for these young people that have been traumatized by this.
God help them.
These people will meet their maker one day…and they will go straight to hell!
the so callled faculty probably faced no charges, i hate humans
It’s crazy how these schools keep popping up around the country. The abuse is outrageous. Not only does the experience traumatize the students but the families are destroyed. Parents are convinced that they are investing in a quality school program that is going to help their child and family. Then they’re conned out of thousands of dollars only to receive a traumatized child who blames them for their trauma. It will take a lot of therapy with the child and family to overcome that mess. I’m seeing it firsthand and it isn’t pretty. A lot of anger and hatred on the child’s part. Heartbreaking.
I’m curious if the school has a connection to the Mormon church? I read it was owned by a number of corporations or LLC’s, but who actually owns those?
After watching the Netflix documentary it was interesting how these target single parent family homes ( Boys Scouts of America) and function in same manner abusing kids. What caught my eye in Dallas Texas a couple of years there was a charter school that opened up called Horizon services elementary School kids. After some outcries from the kiddos being abused authorities get involved the school shut down over night the staff disappeared. Parents started doing there homework and it turned out the school came from Nevada or Arizona was shut for allegations of abuse. Parents were disgusting who ever was running didn’t attempt to reopen the school. A lot of charter school are nonprofit owned by corporations and refuse to admit children with disciplinary. issues. These charter schools run similar to the WWASSPS organization. I’ve always questioned the academic etc. most of the students that graduate from charter are not college readiness are extremely behind.