The Program: Cons, Cults, and Kidnapping

This clause contains discourse of minor abuse and substance use disorder . Additionally , it includes SPOILERS for Netflix ’s The Program .

Summary

Netflix ’s unexampled docuseriesThe Program : Cons , Cults , and Kidnappingleaves out many scandalous details that paint a freehanded picture of the issuing with the WWASP curriculum and the disruptive teen industry . The Programrelays disturb report of the events that take place at the Academy at Ivy Ridge , coming from the voice of subsister . Ivy Ridge was a part of the World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools ( WWASP ) , which was advertize as a school to avail turbulent stripling become positive and contribute extremity of society . Despite this pretty word picture , Netflix’sThe Programdocumentary revealed shocking factsabout the schooling .

The dictatorial and authoritarian syllabus started with teenagers getting kidnap from their home and take to The Academy At Ivy Ridge , where they were strip - look for . The adolescent then live throughmonths upon month of physical , mental , and aroused abuse . They could n’t address to or even look at one another without getting punished . What ’s more , the punishments involved furiousness . Even without outside context , the story inThe Programare stomach - churning . However , the docuseries get out out some detail that are worth acknowledging because they change some of the storey ’s context .

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The Program Cons, Cults, and Kidnapping (2024)

8Another WWASP School Founder Was Found Guilty Of Crimes Against Students

Randall Hinton Ran The WWASP School Royal Gorge Academy

The Programmay have focused in the main on The Academy At Ivy Ridge in New York , but it also highlighted the larger web of the WWASP . This included discussing the other boarding school that shut down and the crimes that pass off there . However , they overlooked one particular malicious gossip in Colorado . A man name Randall Hinton helped co - found a WWASP schooling called Royal Gorge Academy in 2006 . While many of the people in commission of these troubled teen embarkation schools get off scot - detached , Hinton really face consequences for his actions .

In August 2007 , Hinton pass up against a panel of his equal on four assault charges and two sour imprisonment charges towards students at Royal Gorge Academy ( viaThe Pueblo Chieftain ) . The school director wasfound shamefaced of one count of third - level rape and one count of false incarceration . astonishingly , this marked one of the few example where anyone necessitate in preserve this system of torture and pain went to trial and faced any form of punishment .

7The Success Of Large Group Awareness Training Could Manipulate The Dopamine System

LGATs Seemingly Cause Dysregulated Dopamine Levels

Dr. John Hunter has study the relationship between LGATs and the learning ability , coming up with the Dopaminergic - Defense Hypothesis to explain the manner LGATs workplace .

One part of The Academy At Ivy Ridge discussed inThe Programis theLarge Group Awareness Trainings ( LGATs ) that would happen every two months . The survivors of Ivy Ridge line their experiences going through the issue , discussing the mental and emotional encroachment it had on them . There ’s no question view the reenactment that this is fad - comparable conduct that ’s effective . However , there ’s a very interesting brain mechanics that could be behind the succeeder of LGATs . Dr. John Hunter has examine the relationship between LGATs and the brain , coming up with the Dopaminergic - Defense Hypothesis to explain the way LGATs work .

The idea behind his hypothesis applied to this example is that a stop of in high spirits stress – the abuse at Ivy Ridge – followed by the arousal of the brain – the LGATs – causes dysregulated dopamine horizontal surface that cause euphoria and/or psychological harm and reckless behavior ( viaFreedom of Mind Resource Center ) . If this account is dependable , it could explicate why Ivy Ridge used the maneuver consistently . The worsened that students behaved , the longer they stayed at the Academy . It ’s important to note , though , that this is a systematic review of 121 information sources , and it needs to be studied further .

Adult survivors of The Academy At Ivy Ridge Pose next to a photo of them as teenagers in The Program.

Custom Image by Simone Ashmoore

6Synanon Founder Charles E. Dederich Didn’t Have The Education To Lead A Treatment Program

The Troubled Teen Industry Was Built Off The Back Of Someone Without Qualifications

In The Program , director Katherine Kubler spotlight the origins of the troubled teen industry , tracking it all the way of life back to the cultus Synanon protrude by Charles E. Dederich . They explain that Dederich start up out attending an dipsomaniac anon. programme where he felt they were too gentle with the multitude search recovery from inebriant function disorder . As such , he created Synanon , a rehabilitation discourse center for multitude with all forms of meat use disorder . The furor was known for its use of goods and services of onslaught therapy – a shape of verbal maltreatment . What ’s not mentioned inThe Programis Dederich ’s want of credentials .

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InThe New York Timesobituary for Charles E. Dedrich , writer Lawrence Van Gelder mentioned the fact thatthe cultus leader give out out of the University of Notre Dame after 18 months . This means Dedrich had zero degrees in psychological science or addiction treatment . He would n’t have train in this field without getting a Masters Degree . carry this into considerateness , the integrality of the disruptive teen industry , including the Academy at Ivy Ridge highlight inThe Program , was based on a cult that was run by a man without the qualification to treat substance exercise disorder .

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5The Staff Of The Academy Of Ivy Ridge Denied Any Responsibility For The Riot

Ivy Ridge Blamed Unruly Students For The Riot In The Boys Dorms

The riot at The Academy of Ivy Ridge was discuss multiple times throughout The Program , explore how and why it pass off . This incident is herculean to experience through the eye of the man who helped plan the event . However , a couple of details about the Riot were leave out , potential for meter ’s sake . The first of which is the faculty ’s response to the riot . In an article forThe New York Timesfrom 2005 , the stave explained why the riot occurred . They completely absolved themselves and the deftness of all incrimination . Ivy Ridge is paint as a safe haven .

or else , the faculty said that the drunken revelry was because of explosive teenswho just could n’t be controlled . It ’s unsurprising that the staff at Ivy Ridge respond this fashion , but it just confirms the reaction from stave members interviewed inThe Program . Even Miss Siss , the most undetermined staff member , speak in a circuitous way when it came to her participation in anything less than savoury . There was zero accountability from anyone involved in the abuses that led to the scream .

4Public Allegations Of Mistreatment At Academy At Ivy Ridge Occured Before The Riot

Allegations Of Abuse Didn’t Start After The Riot At Ivy Ridge

Another interesting choice morsel that total out in the New York Times ’ aforementioned reporting aboutthe Ivy Ridge bacchanal was the fact that this was n’t the first incident of vexation . The Academy At Ivy Ridge already receive examination from state investigators due to allegations of mistreatment from former students of the schooling . The Program paint the riot as the turning point for the school . However , this additional information bear witness that the institutions meant to protect scholarly person failed in their job , overlooking the maltreatment until it got to the stage where they could no longer drag the number under the rug .

3New York State Acknowledged Dangers At Ivy Ridge 3 Years Before The School Closed

The Department Of Education Was Allegedly Negligent In Handling The Academy At Ivy Ridge

When everything originally broke about the Academy at Ivy Ridge , New York State seemed dismayed ; however , a recently uncovered papers fromNew York ’s 7 Newsdirectly contradicts this opinion . Apparently , the riot was n’t enough to shut down the troubled stripling boarding school , and neither were the country ’s findings when the school day applied to be recognize by the government . Around a class after the belly laugh , New York State send a varsity letter to Director Jason Finilinson refuse its accreditation and outlining multiple concerns regarding safe , training , and wellness that they had . The elemental concerns they highlight in the letter admit :

found on the state ’s knowledge of these offspring and want of action , it ’s easy to say that the New York Department of Education was complacent in the abuse of pupil at The Academy At Ivy Ridge . Instead , the only activity have , according to the letter , was denying Ivy Ridge ’s power to administrate New York standardized examination or give out diploma . This punishment did nothing to save educatee in unsafe and scurrilous conditions .

Some of the most worrying documentary film ever made will stick in the minds of watcher long after even the darkest horror movies have been block .

Former attendees of Ivy Ridge lined up in front of memorial wall.

2The Troubled Teen Industry Receives Approximately $23 Billion Every Year

People Become Multi-Millionaires By Exploiting And Abusing Teens

At the end ofThe Program , they give a coup d’oeil at the openhanded picture of the disruptive teen industry . The docuseries mentions related to programs like theshocking wilderness therapy camps in Netflix’sHell Camp : Teen Nightmare . They spotlight the money involve in the WWASP schools . However , The Programleaves out precisely how much money the industry is deserving . agree to theAmerican Bar Association , the tumultuous teen industrybrings in approximately $ 32 billion every twelvemonth . This disturbing fact points to the fact that the teens experience harm while those in boot thrive due to exploitation and abuse .

1District Attorney Gary Pasqua Has Opened An Investigation Into The Academy At Ivy Ridge

It ’s prognosticate to know that there ’s someone working to bring justice for the survivors of The Academy at Ivy Ridge .

At the end ofThe Program , the survivors mention that there ’s no happy closing to this story . However , there is one glimmer of Leslie Townes Hope that the docuseries could n’t have admit since it did n’t happen until after its release ; District Attorney Gary Pasquaopened a legal investigation into the abuses at Ivy Ridge . According to his statement toSpectrum News 1 , one tec is spending 95 % of his metre working solely on the causa . The only business organization with the investigating is the statute of limitations . It ’s unlikelyRobert Lichfield ofThe Programwill ever face charges , but it ’s promise to love that there ’s someone working to bring justice for the survivor of The Academy at Ivy Ridge .

Sources : The Pueblo Chieftain , Freedom of Mind Resource Center , The New York Times , The New York Times , New York ’s 7 News , American Bar Association , andSpectrum News 1

Ivy Ridge attendees act out a seminar activity.

Charles Dederich Sr. looks to the side in a black and white picture.

A blended image features photos from the Netflix documentaries Strong Island and The Keepers

Quintin is standing in the old hallway at Ivy Ridge.

Archived footage of young student confessing to group.

Photo from The Program showing Sean at Ivy Ridge graduation.

The Nightmare 2015 documentary

WWASP Founder Robert Lichfield in The Program Cons, Cults, and Kidnapping.

The Program: Cons, Cults, and Kidnapping