OGDENSBURG — The director of the former Academy at Ivy Ridge has penned a letter stating that a Netflix documentary’s portrayal of students’ lives at the Route 37 boarding school is “inaccurate” and that neither administration nor staff would have ever condoned abuse or mistreatment of the children there.
Jason G. Finlinson said in a letter submitted to the Ogdensburg Journal, which is published by the Johnson Newspaper Corp., publisher of the Watertown Daily Times, that the documentary’s creators “took a few isolated incidents and tried to suggest that was the norm at lvy Ridge. Nothing could be further from the truth.”
Finlinson, who declined additional comment when contacted Monday, was a co-owner of the academy that was operated by the World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools, a Utah-based company founded by his father-in-law Robert B. Lichfield, and which was run as a disciplinary boarding school for troubled youth at the former Mater Dei College between 2001 and 2009.
In March, a three-part documentary directed by former Ivy Ridge student Katherine Kubler titled “The Program: Cons, Cults and Kidnapping” debuted on Netflix. The documentary portrays students at the boarding program being emotionally and physically abused.
It claims students and parents were defrauded by the operator, led to believe the school could award high school diplomas even though it was denied state Education Department accreditation as a private high school.
In the wake of the documentary’s release, St. Lawrence County District Attorney Gary M. Pasqua and Sheriff Patrick “Rick” Engle announced that they were opening an investigation into reports of abuse, each indicating that their offices have been inundated with phone calls and emails from former students, as well as other inquiries about potential investigations.
Assemblyman Scott A. Gray, R-Watertown, has asked that the state attorney general conduct an investigation.
In his letter, Finlinson counters that Kubler conceded that the documentary was “a personal revenge project” and says that “the show was one-sided, with no opposing interviews from the school or professionals.”
“The overwhelming majority of Staff at Ivy Ridge were good, caring people who were interested in the well-being and personal growth of the students. There may have been a few isolated incidents of staff misconduct that we were unaware of. But that was not the norm or usual,” Finlinson wrote.
He accuses the documentary makers of multiple crimes, including trespass, theft of records, graffiti and vandalism, although Kubler indicated in the documentary that the makers were given permission by the property’s current owner to enter the premises and remove anything left behind by Ivy Ridge.
(1) comment
I was at the sister school in Mexico while Jason Finlinson was working there in management in 1999. I personally witnessed that man take down kids who were not being violent and he seemed to enjoy it. I don't believe he should have been allowed to work around children or move on to being a director at his own school. I thought he was a monster in Mexico and it appears it didn't change with a move to New York
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