The Program Netflix

[clarkkentsglasses]

Fucking Hell!!!

I'm so sad for those poor children who are now broken adults.

I watched it as well. It’s absolutely shocking! There were so many of those places in America and I remember back in the 90’s teenagers used to get sent to similar places on programmes like Dr Phil. I suspected something was seriously wrong with it even then but nowhere near as bad as this. That lady is an amazing survivor.

Shit, I just watched the trailer. I am going to watch this. Does this type of stuff happen in the UK as well?

Possibly, but probably nowhere near on the scale of that as it’s run by a sinister cult. There’s no way in the UK that it would be legal to have people kidnapped in the night, just so unbelievably traumatic.

I started watching it last night. The show has a strange vibe. I found myself questioning if it's one of those docu-dramas. It seems kinda scripted. I can't put my finger on it, but it just seems a bit 'off'.

No, it’s all definitely real. Loads of teenagers have been sent to these places. Unfortunately it was a thing in America in the 90’s early 00’s. It’s so sad and shocking.

Yeah, I know that the subject matter is real, and these things did happen. It's just the presentation of it feels kind of scripted.

I’ve watched the first 2 parts so far, it’s shocking and I have so much sympathy for the brave people returning to the school.
What I didn’t understand is why all the files seem to still be there, some in cabinets, some chucked in a storage corridor/passageway. It looks derelict but surely the people running the place must have known how much evidence of abuse was there. Did they just not care as they didn’t view it as abuse?
I think it was a scheme targeted at extreme Christian families as some of the behaviour that was deemed so terrible did not seem at all extreme to me.
I hope the children who have come through it are able to find some peace now.

I think that might be because she's an amateur documentary maker. The way she speaks is quite hyper and slightly immature, which is not that surprising given that she wasn't allowed to grow up properly. I think most of the time she's struggling to contain herself and perhaps it needed stronger editing from an outsider. I think given their shared experience it was just hard for them to be objective in the way it was made. I don't think it detracted from the horrific message they were trying to bring home - that children's lives were being traded for the economy and rich people's back pockets

Oh, I didn't realise she was an amateur documentary maker. Yes, that absolutely explains it. I couldn't quite put my finger on it.

This was so shocking! And the fact there were so many camps like this, they were treated SO poorly, worse than prisoners, they were there for such long times in crucial time of their development into an adult. Just 😱 and the fact it is still going on! Tragic how many took their own lives and so many left traumatised for life. How Americans put money above people's wellbeing time and time again is outrageous.

Is this like the experience Paris Hilton spoke about a couple of years ago?

I binged it and was horrified. She/they researched over more than 10 years, and I think any filming they did themselves was more Blair witch style iyswim. Then netflix got them to refilm bits with their production team is probably why it feels a bit scripted. It's real, they did go in there, but they sort of reenacted it for the netflix doc, and as they're real people and not actors, that's why it can have a strange vibe at times.

I also think all the files on the floor etc was staged. The academy was closed, the building sold and abandoned, and then they went in years ago to find stuff which was probably in actual file boxes at the time. Then netflix wanted to do their usual shock factor and fucked with the staging.

I read some development company bought the building and land years ago, but I'm confused why it was never demolished for redevelopment. Apart from the fact the economy in that town is shite. Its all prisons and institutions and they're the only jobs for residents, they were hardly gonna turn it into a shopping mall I suppose.

@Sparklfairy - It was the files at the academy bit that 1st made me think hang on. This is completely staged. What are the odds of going there and finding your own files. I'm glad they go to tell thier story even if Netflix ended up making a dog's dinner of it.

It is similar to Paris Hilton’s experience. The troubled teen industry in America is all run by the same sadistic cult. I just remember in the 90’s all of these talk shows where they would force kids to go there and the audience would act like they deserved to be treated like this. It’s as abusive as it gets and to be in a place like that for such a long time must be horrific. I also remember a program called Brat Camp and they showed you the kids who had been in the program for over a year, and the traumatised look in their eyes and how scared they seemed you realised there is something really wrong with this. You would think there would places that actually helped teenagers but they were all like this. The lady who made the documentary was in there for sneaking lemonade into boarding school FFS….no serious crime is or out of control delinquent behaviour like these places make out the kids are in there for and even if there was this is still so wrong.

I agree the odds of them walking in and immediately finding their files was staged for the documentary though.

I watched this too, horrific, and the trauma they're still suffering is so evident in some of them. There's a similar documentary also on Netflix I think called Hell Camp:Teen Nightmare. I can still remember a lot of the 90s talk shows like Jerry Springer and Maury Povich having some poor kids on who'd been dragged from their beds and sent to these places.
Also, the lemonade the girl smuggled in to school was Mikes Hard Lemonade, which is actually an alcopop, not just lemonade.

Sally Jessy Raphael us another one that springs to mind.

I just don’t know how anyone can cope with staring at a wall for hours on end and the seminars where they non stop bang towels on the floor and are not allowed to stop and the endless screaming abuse at each other and being blamed for every traumatic thing that ever happened along with living in intense fear. Not having any privacy. It’s enough to make anyone crack up. I don’t know why they dreamed these sick places up, even if it was for profit it still doesn’t explain it, it’s just so shockingly sick!

I wonder what Dr Phil thinks now about these places - didnt he send kids there?

It would be interesting to hear what he thinks. I could never work out if he thought they were sending them somewhere that would really help them or if he was in on it and knows how abusive it is, because even if people didn’t surely any normal person would realise how completely traumatising it must be to be taken away in the middle of the night!

Hello
We did send our boy to Academy at Ivy Ridge (15 years old to almost 18, about 2 1/2 years) from 2006 to 2009.

I am sad to see I have been fooled by the company. And I can confirm it has not helped my son who was and still is a very troubled person.

However there is a side that the show does not mention: many of the kids sent there were not "nice" as the program portrays it. Many were at the verge of Criminality. That was the case for my son (drugs, violence, theft, abuse...) and the alternative solution may well have been jail.

Life at home was horrible (and dangerous) for the rest of the family when he was there.
We have met many other parents that also had been living hell with their kid.
Think about theses parents that overheard their son planning their murder, think about having broken doors in your house because of violence, things, money and credit card that disappear, siblings that are abused, think about the school calling you because of abuse or destruction...
We did not send our son "happily" we sent him by lack of other choice and so did many other parents

Adding this side (the parents) to the program would have helped everyone understand better.

Again, this does not mean I approve that abuse that went on : I deeply regret it.
But a normal teen would not have been sent there and for us it was kind of the "last resort" after trying so many other things.
And Jail, where many of these kids were headed because of their behavior would have been far worse.

Sometimes in life you only have the choice between bad and worse...
You just need to try something and hope for the best.