Who is Robert Browning Lichfield?
The Netflix Docuseries – The Program: Cons, Cults and Kidnapping narrates the horrific stories of child abuse at the hands of Academy at Ivy Ridge – an independent privately owned facility that operated a for-profit disciplinary boarding school in Ogdensburg, New York.
The institution was owned by the business partnership of the Jason G. Finlinson Corporation and the Joseph and Alyn Mitchell Corporation.
The property on which the school stood was purchased by Robert Browning Lichfield Family Limited of Toquerville, Utah in 2001. Robert Lichfield was the owner of the World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools (WWASPS) and still owns most of the program facilities under the project. Robert also owns the Cross Creek Programs as well as Teen Help, the marketing arm of WWASPS.
Robert Lichfield was a former staff member at Provo Canyon Boys School which was shut down due to abuse, neglect and mistreatment of children. Reports claim that Robert went on to start the WWASPS program despite having no background in Child Psychology. Robert also founded LifeSpring with the help of David Gilcrease.
With David’s marketing seminars, WWASPS quickly spanned into an umbrella corporation of speciality programs with programs located all over the world including countries such as Samoa, Mexico, Costa Rica and Jamaica.
What happened to the students in the Academy?
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.
Moreover, witness testimony from Katherin Kubler, one of the survivors of Academy at Ivy Ridge reveals how the facility took hefty fees from the parents of these troubled teens only for them to make a huge profit out of it.
The facility housed these students in unlivable conditions while making their parents pay huge fees that was pocketed by the owners of the facility.
Where is Robert Lichfield now?
Numerous former students or their parents have filed lawsuits against WWASPS, its personnel, or individual schools. Most of these lawsuits have been settled out of court or have been dismissed for procedural reasons.
A lawsuit was filed in 2007 against Robert Lichfield and the WWASPS on behalf of 133 plaintiffs alleging physical and sexual abuse and fraudulent concealment of abuse.
This brought negative publicity to Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney as Robert Lichfield was one of six co-chairs of the Utah state fundraising committee for Romney’s campaign.
As a counterattack, Robert Lichfield sued two individuals associated with the International Survivors Action Committee (ISAC) for defamation, invasion of his privacy, and causing intentional interference with prospective economic advantage. That suit was pending as of April 2005.
In May 2005, a U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed a defamation lawsuit brought by WWASPS against a United Press International reporter who had done research for a news story about alleged abuse at several WWASPS schools.
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.
This is unbelievable, how can anyone that was working as an employee for Ivy Ridge,
not be in jail or be sent to death row……………………….. especially this so-called fake Pastor.
Nichols Karm will get every one of them. Please continue to get these people that worked there. Why is this owner walking in life today.
The LDS church and its leaders possible connections to these horrific programmed needs to be investigated. From state to international level on down and then back up again….
Hello 👋🏻,
I saw this documentary yesterday evening, and was horrified by what I had seen & heard! Absolutely heartbreaking 💔! I thought to myself 🤬 & why is this happening in the USA 🇺🇸? 🤬……is the matter with this country & the place I call home? It sickens me. I am a mom myself & I can’t even begin to imagine this happening to my child & the fact that the parents were manipulated as well is baffling to me. I myself can’t imagine sending my child away to any school without checking out the facility first. What parents send their kid away without doing more investigation on where their kid is going & the fact that these kids were gone for year(s) at a time in some of the situations. No Effin way would I ever agree to do this & on top of it pay 💰 an undisclosed amount to send my kid there. HELL TO THE NAW NAW NAW!!! Huge red flags 🚩 🚩🚩 I would be getting in this scenario. My heart goes out to these victims. I’m soo heartbroken & sad for the victims. I’m hoping u all get the therapy u need to move forward & put this horrific part of your life behind u the best way u know how. Sending big Hugs & endearing Blessings 🙏 to you all & hope the perpetrators get what should be coming to them.
I sympathize with you. Never give up hope! I live in Belgium, and I don’t understand why this can exist for so long without any problems. But “America” doesn’t surprise me anymore. This is yet another proof that everything revolves around money. I admire all of you for never giving up hope and trying to make the best of your lives. I couldn’t do this. I would do anything to get revenge. Much respect to everyone!!! xx
Hey,
I did run a search on him myself and did not find any information on his death. Could you please share your source?
Yall, I just googled him and he JUST died. Like literally in the last few hours. And the documentary was released yesterday….
I watched the documentary. I/s horrifying. Robert Lichfield should be put in the electric chair.
Well, I am an old school southern Baptist who believes in an eye for an eye. Anyone who harms a child is deplorable at best. You would be better to tie a millstone around your neck and walk into the ocean instead of harming a child. I think everyone involved in the abuse and torture of these children should get ten fold what they did to these children. And I would be more than happy to travel the country, find them all and deal out their just punishment.
The documentary on Netflix was riveting & compelling. The evidence is overwhelming. I hope there is justice for the abused children.
The Ivy Ridge School is actually in the Town Of Oswegatchie- about 4 miles outside the City of Ogdensburg. The Town Supervisor in Town of Oswegatchie is Alfred Nichols ~who is Tom Nichols father. Tom Nichols was interviewed in the documentary. He did all the social media and photography to lure the parents in. He is now employed at a St Law Co govt office.