A harrowing new Netflix series is leaving viewers stunned as it dives into a world of 'cons, cults, and kidnapping'.
The school
Imagine you're just hanging out in high school, when all of a sudden you're taken to the principal's office, put in handcuffs, and taken away by total strangers.
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It sounds like the start of a horror movie, but it was a reality for Katherine Kubler and a number of other survivors of Ivy Ridge; a disciplinary school in rural Ogdensburg, New York.
Kubler was sent to Ivy Ridge after acting out as a teenager, and while brochures made it look like your average high school, in reality attendees endured mental and physical abuse during their time there.
The rules
The documentary, titled The Program: Cons, Cults and Kidnapping, reveals how students were prohibited from speaking to or looking at one another; they were penalized for so much as looking out of a window.
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Survivors claim students could often be seen sleeping on mattresses on the floor of the school's hallways, and one attendee recalled an 'intervention' in which she was forced to lie face down on the floor for hours.
Most of the time students were unable to go outside.
The documentary
Ivy Ridge shut down in 2009, but Kubler decided to make the documentary because 'there really was nothing out there to help explain what had happened to [her] to [her] friends and family to warn them about these places', Time reports.
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"So now, that resource exists," Kubler explained.
The former student found video footage and files on students lying in plain site in the abandoned building, which used to house the students. During her return to Ogdensburg, she spoke to a former Ivy Ridge staffer who claimed she was just carrying out orders during her time at the school.
“These programs destroy families, and it's very hard, so I wanted [viewers] to see what it's done to my family,” Kubler said.
The reaction
The Program has captivated viewers with its three episodes, with many bingeing the entire series in one night.
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After watching the shocking documentary, one viewer took to LADbible's Netflix Bangers Facebook page to share their thoughts.
"This had to be so traumatizing!," they wrote. "10/10 definitely opened my eyes up to things I had no clue were happening."
On X, another viewer commented: "The Program on Netflix is crazy from the start but about 7 minutes into episode 2 the level of f**ked up psychological warfare reaches another level. No idea how so many parents bought into this s**t."
A third added: "Twisted AF. ‘The Program’ on Netflix is one of the wildest most disturbing docs I have seen."
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The future
After sharing her story in the documentary, Kubler has expressed hope that eventually the 'troubled teen' industry will be shut down.
“This industry exists because there are not many good resources out there for families in a crisis, so we need to figure out alternate solutions,” she explained.
“Ultimately the goal is to expose these places and to get this industry shut down.”
Stream The Program: Cons, Cults and Kidnapping on Netflix now.
Topics: Netflix, Film and TV, New York, US News, Social Media
Emily Brown