WWASP has schools worldwide in countries such as Mexico, The United States, the Czech Republic, and Costa Rica. All these schools have very unique names such as “Casa by the Sea” and “Ivy Ridge.” While these schools may seem like they are very nice and exquisite schools they are nothing short of military boot camp and mental and emotional hell.
“The Program” is a documentary series on Netflix about a group of Girls reliving and talking about their experiences and lives they had to go through and live at “Ivy Ridge” in Upstate New York. The Ducoseries follows Katherine Kubler and her experience at “Ivy Ridge.” She begins by talking about how she got into a little bit of trouble in school and one day she got called up to the office two men told her that she was coming with them and they got her into the van and took her to “Ivy Ridge.” Once she entered the school they wouldn’t let her leave and little did she know she wouldn’t leave the school for months.
I found it interesting that schools like this existed in the early 2000s and people could bring themselves to put another human being kidnapped and brought to a whole new school. She goes on to explain how if you misbehaved or did anything bad, they would scold you in ways such as solitary confinement, give you less food or water, or they would even make you stand up for hours on time. When she explained this, it made me appreciate the school I get to go to and go home to a nice house and not be scolded and beaten for talking badly.
She also goes on to explain how there was a boy’s side of the school and one day they broke out into a riot and all ran down the hallways destroyed the kitchen and ran into the gym and some of the boys even managed to run out of the school, but were all found by teachers and brought back to the school. The girls’ and boys’ sides were brought to more security and staff. When I was watching this I found it very hard not to run away when something like this happened because you are in a school where you learn very little and get beat on for misbehaving. I do not blame the boy’s side for breaking out into a riot.
After the riot, the narrator talks about how one of WASP’s schools in Mexico “Casa by the Sea” was shut down and raided by the Mexican government. Kids from “Casa by the Sea” were sent to “Ivy Ridge” and now the school was even more packed and forced kids to sleep in the hallways on cardboard or sometimes with nothing. The episodes continue and Katherine continues to explain and talk about how the staff at “Ivy Ridge” would mentally and emotionally destroy them by making them believe the deaths of family members were their fault and that it would be better if they died instead.
One day, Katherine is called up to the desk and her dad is there to pick her up, she is very shocked and can’t believe it, they quickly bring her, her stuff and she quickly exits the school. They didn’t let her say bye to anyone who didn’t know how to handle this situation and couldn’t believe that the worst years of her life were finally coming to an end.
Overall, this documentary series was one of the best ones I have seen, and I highly recommend it to someone interested in documentaries and social experiment types of stuff. The episodes had lots of information in them and the first-hand accounts of this were described all very well.
4.1/5
