Written By: Hannah Nasluchacz, Staff Writer
NETFLIX: The new series that exposes the “Troubled Teen” industry.
Over the course of only three episodes, director Katherine Kubler peels back the layers of Academy at Ivy Ridge, a so-called for-profit boarding school modification program for “troubled teens.” With a group of alumni, Kubler returns to the now abandoned building in New York in order to gather evidence to help tell their stories in the Netflix Docuseries: “The Program: Cons, Cults, and Kidnapping.”
Teenagers usually around the age of 16 were isolated from the outside world. They were not allowed to look out the windows, denied a proper education, forced to follow rules designed for failure, and brainwashed into believing they were the worst of the worst. In reality, there were many teens participating in the program that committed minor offenses like Kubler, who drank Mike’s Hard Lemonade and got caught.
Following the former students, the time at the facility was emotional to watch. Having Kubler and the interviewees talking at the actual location of the abuse shapes the raw and realness of the docuseries. Unlike other documentaries that over-dramatize everything, The Program sets out to immerse its audience in the culture that was forced upon them as teenagers at the facility. With the bulk of the story being told by the people who experienced it first hand, and with security footage from the facility to enforce their claims, the series allowed the audience to fully accept and explore what happened to the people.
The series also explores the relationship between teens and family, as well as the difficult family dynamic when a child is left thinking that their parents put them into an abusive situation. Kubler remembers taking the risk of asking the father to take her home on video camera. If she were to get caught, then she would have to start the program all over again. Some kids opted to just pretend that everything was fine in order to ensure they could finish this program and get out.
Furthermore, the series shows the process that Kubler took to heal from her trauma, telling the story of her being sent away by her father, all the way to the first step of open communication after not talking to her father for over a year. This process of a victim attempting to mend the relationship with the person who sent her away to get abused by the system sets shows her strength and endurance. Sadly, however, most victims of the troubled teen industry rarely heal from their trauma, and end up becoming addicts or committing suicide.
The troubled teen industry as a whole disguises themselves with the image of wanting to help change youths’ behavior in order to help them achieve a ‘good’ future. In reality, their future is being destroyed by these programs that are not held accountable and are not being regulated. This Netflix docuseries helped spread the word out to parents and guardians to warn them about what could potentially happen to their children. In order to encourage change, one needs to become educated and this series allows people a stepping stone to become fully aware of what their “Troubled Teen” really needs.