# Academy at Ivy Ridge

Academy at Ivy Ridge was an independent privately owned and operated for-profit behavior modification facility in Ogdensburg, New York. It marketed itself as a boarding school. The 2024 Netflix documentary series The Program: Cons, Cults, and Kidnapping documented the conditions at the facility and the lasting impact it had on the people who attended it.

## Ownership and affiliation

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 in 2001 by Robert Browning Lichfield Family Limited of Toquerville, Utah, and the school opened later that year in affiliation with the World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools (WWASPS). In 2003, the New York Times reported that the school's director had previously been an administrator at Casa by the Sea. In January 2006, Ivy Ridge announced that it had withdrawn from WWASPS in November 2005 because of the negative media attention that WWASPS was receiving. However, the Teen Help subsidiary of WWASPS still conducted marketing for the school as of March 2007.

## Location

Academy at Ivy Ridge sits on 237 acres (0.96 km$^2$) of land located close to the St. Lawrence River. The facility, the former home of Mater Dei College, has over 200,000 square feet (20,000 m$^2$) of building space which houses classrooms, dorms, recreational areas, computer centers, science labs, food services, and offices. School promotional materials state that the facility boasts cross-country ski trails, nature trails, tennis courts, basketball courts, sand volleyball area, baseball, football and soccer fields, all located within a wooded setting. However, students were not permitted to look out windows at lower levels. A student could reach upper level status in as little as 8 months and earn the privilege to look outside, and occasionally be taken outside to play during a monthly upper level activity.

## History

The institution began admitting students in 2001. As of spring 2005 there were 460 students enrolled.
The students started a riot on May 16, 2005, resulting in at least 4 dozen expulsions and 12 arrests. About 35 sheriff's deputies, state troopers, city police officers and U.S. Border Patrol agents assisted in ending the riot and capturing at least 30 runaways. Later in the 2024 documentary series The Program: Cons, Cults, and Kidnapping they stated that the Academy at Ivy Ridge had become overcrowded with people even sleeping on mattresses in the hallway. This was due to a large group of new arrivals who came from another WWASPS program called Casa by the Sea which had been closed by the Mexican government.
Allegations of abuse include poor living conditions, unauthorized medical procedures, psychological torture, sexual abuse, and physical abuse. Closed-circuit television camera video footage obtained from the school demonstrate violent restraint tactics used against students.
In March 2009, it was announced that Ivy Ridge would close until fall 2009 in order to restructure. There were about 60 students enrolled at that time; they were to be sent home or transferred to similar boarding schools. In April 2009, the campus was sold to a Delaware corporation, a spokesperson for the purchaser told news media that the school would not reopen.
In 2024, following the release of The Program: Cons, Cults, and Kidnapping, the St. Lawrence County district attorney Gary Pasqua announced the launch of an investigation into the Academy at Ivy Ridge.
As of June 3, 2024, the campus remains abandoned and the property is listed for sale at $875,000
On June 26, 2024, The Salt Lake Tribune reported that Robert Lichfield's brother and fellow WWASPS associate Narvin Lichfield, who was director at the affiliated Academy at Dundee Ranch, had filed a civil lawsuit against The Program: Cons, Cults and Kidnapping director Katherine Kubler and Netflix, alleging that he had been defamed and secretly recorded.

## Lawsuits and abuse

The facility has been sued by various past students for widespread abuses. When the location was abandoned in 2009, alumni found extensive records of abuse filed and recorded. Various lawsuits against Ivy Ridge, including testimony from students, are documented in The Program: Cons, Cults, and Kidnapping, a Netflix docuseries released in 2024. They also kidnapped many teens and children as parents were not made aware of the circumstances of their training. Students and parents were widely unaware of the abuses and due to censorship of letters when students write home, no meaningful communication about it could be transmitted in any way whatsoever.
Calls for the investigation and prosecution of former resident overseer, Amy Ritchie, began making their rounds on the internet following the documentary on Netflix in addition to former employee George Tulip and founder Robert Lichfield, all for child abuse.

## Legal status as a school

On August 17, 2005, Ivy Ridge was ordered to pay civil penalties of $250,000 to the New York State Attorney General, stop issuing unauthorized high school diplomas, and refrain from advertising that it is an accredited school. In addition, it was required to make partial refunds to former students. On December 1, 2006, the New York State Department of Education denied Ivy Ridge's application for authorization to issue high school diplomas. The department's letter to Ivy Ridge stated that the institution had been determined to be principally a behavior modification program, not a school. Following this ruling, the school's enrollment dropped from about 500 to less than 100 students.
In connection with the incident, the Idaho-based Northwest Association of Accredited Schools, which had accredited Ivy Ridge, was criticized for accrediting a school outside of its service area and for violating its own procedures by not requiring a state license as a prerequisite to accreditation.
In April 2009 a judge refused to dismiss a lawsuit related to the diploma issue.