Topline
The latest true-crime docuseries to hit Netflix charts shot to the No. 3 spot on the streamer’s most-watched list last week as more than 7 million people tuned in to “The Program: Cons, Cults and Kidnapping” about New York’s Academy at Ivy Ridge—leading to a wave of abuse reports and an investigation into the school by local law enforcement.
Key Facts
“The Program” follows Katherine Kubler, who directed the series, and her former classmates at the Academy at Ivy Ridge, a boarding school for troubled teenagers where they say they were mentally, physically and sexually abused while the facility was open from 2001 and 2009.
The former students visited the now-shuttered school in upstate New York and recounted the years they were isolated from their families, discouraged from forming relationships with one another and were “treated like prisoners,” one staff member said in the show.
Students described a “brainwashing” experience where they were forced to comply with a program that painted them as manipulative, drug addicted or beyond help, and recalled instances of being handcuffed, strip searched and forced to participate in “seminars” that included various exhausting and degrading activities, sometimes for days at a time.
In the week after the series released, reports of physical and sexual abuse from people now scattered across the country began to pile up at the St. Lawrence County District Attorney’s Office, local news affiliate ABC50 reported, and New York law enforcement agencies officially launched an investigation into Ivy Ridge on Monday.
“The Program” racked up 22.7 million viewing hours between its March 5 premiere and March 10, the latest Netflix data shows.
The views made the three-episode limited series the third most-watched English TV show of the week on the platform, behind “The Gentlemen” in first place with 81.5 million viewing hours and “Avatar The Last Airbender” (65.7 million hours).
Crucial Quote
“They dehumanize the kids, that these kids are liars, manipulators, and they use that to create compliance,” one docuseries participant said.
Key Background
The Academy at Ivy Ridge opened in 2001 as part of the World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools (WWASPS), a Utah-based organization that included programs for troubled teens across the nation. Hundreds of students were enrolled by 2005, when a riot broke out that led to dozens of expulsions and arrests. As many as 30 students escaped the facility during the riot and were returned by state troopers, U.S. Border Patrol agents and other authorities. The riot came after years of students accusing the school of abuse and scrutiny by state investigative agencies, the New York Times reported. Investigations were also opened into the school for their academic programs, which were not accredited by the state but nonetheless issued high school diplomas. WWASPS no longer operates, but at one time included dozens of institutions, a number of which were shut down in the late 90s or early 2000s after licenses were revoked, state social services got involved or allegations of abuse were made public. A group called WWASP Survivors now exists to raise awareness about those still being treated in troubled teen programs.
Tangent
The industry of programs, schools and homes for troubled teens have been increasingly pushed into the spotlight in recent years. Called the “troubled teen industry,” the term encompasses a wide variety of wellness centers, wilderness programs, boot camps, residential treatment centers and other programs that see families pay tens of thousands of dollars to rehabilitate children who’ve had problems with drugs or alcohol, behavioral issues, mental illness or other struggles. The industry is worth an estimated $23 billion, according to the Citizens Commission on Human Rights International.
Surprising Fact
Paris Hilton, now a business woman who rose to fame in her teen years, has made it her personal mission to empower survivors of the troubled teen industry. In 2020, Hilton starred in a documentary called “This is Paris” and spoke for the first time about the two years she spent in a series of residential treatment facilities starting when she was 16 years old. She detailed being taken “from my home in the middle of the night” after her parents were “conned into believing that my diagnosed attention deficit disorder behavior would be fixed with ‘tough love.'” She spoke in front of Congress in 2021 about her experience at Provo Canyon School, a youth treatment center in Utah, and last summer released a memoir titled “Paris” that included extensive writings about her time in wilderness programs and teen treatment centers.