These are some of the countless rules that teens had to follow at Academy at Ivy Ridge, a disciplinary boarding institution that operated in upstate N.Y. between 2001 and 2009. Marketed as a school that would help troubled teens, in reality, many Ivy Ridge attendees endured mental and physical abuse and were made to take part in cult-like activities., out March 5 on Netflix.
Since Ivy Ridge shut down in 2009, anyone has been able to walk into the abandoned building. While there, Kubler found an extensive paper trail, video footage, and eyewitness testimony literally lying in plain sight, including files on teens and security cameras footage of staffers flogging teens.
shows that the abuse actually scarred them for life. The school also did not offer students a degree they could actually use. Ivy Ridge was not licensed, certified or registered with the New York State Department of Education, and the diplomas were not transferable to colleges., Kubler also explores the effects her time at Ivy Ridge has had on the rest of her life. She found it difficult to be close to her father after leaving the school, cutting off contact from time to time.
Returning to Ogdensburg for the series, Kubler bumped into a former Ivy Ridge staffer and invited her out to breakfast; the staffer says that she was just carrying out orders, but regretted not speaking up, in hindsight. In another scene, Kubler shows up at a karaoke night where a leader of Ivy Ridge’s parent company was performing. While she doesn’t introduce herself because she doesn’t want to give him a platform, she does get up and sings Blondie’s “One Way or Another” .