In 2001, the Academy at Ivy Ridge in New York opened its doors as a boarding school promising to provide troubled teens with a safe environment for change. The school offered activities such as horseback riding, swimming, and nature trails to its students. However, former attendee Katherine Kubler later revealed the harsh reality of what went on behind closed doors.
Katherine Kubler was sent to the Academy at Ivy Ridge in 2004 when she was just 16 years old. She spent 15 months at the school before being withdrawn and taken back home. The boarding school, located in Ogdensburg, New York, had physical restraints, small bedrooms, and solitary confinement that students were subjected to. Parents, including Katherine’s, were unaware of the conditions their children were facing at the school.
After leaving Ivy Ridge, Katherine embarked on a career in marketing and media. She worked for reputable companies such as the Los Angeles Times, William Morris Endeavor, and Paramount Pictures before starting her own creative agency called Tiny Dino. Katherine later teamed up with Netflix to create a three-part docuseries titled The Program: Cons, Cults, and Kidnapping, which premiered on the streaming service on March 5, 2024.
In The Program, Katherine and other former students from Ivy Ridge revisited the abandoned school to tell their stories and expose the treatment they endured. The series aims to shed light on the troubled teen industry as a whole, emphasizing that Ivy Ridge is just one example of a larger issue. Katherine hopes to bring awareness to the harmful practices of such schools and ensure that no other teenager faces what she and her fellow students went through.
The unveiling of the Academy at Ivy Ridge serves as a reminder of the importance of transparency and accountability in institutions that claim to provide help for vulnerable individuals. Through her work with Netflix, Katherine Kubler has become a voice for survivors of troubled teen programs, advocating for change and justice in an industry that has long operated in the shadows.
