AN unnamed teacher-predator referenced in Netflix’s exposé about the Academy at Ivy Ridge has been identified by five ex-students who accuse the senior female staffer of serial grooming and sexual abuse.
Four of the students alleged in separate interviews with The U.S. Sun that they were groomed and molested by Amy Ritchie, the former director of the girl’s program, over several months while attending Ivy Ridge as teenagers in the mid-2000s.
The women claim the abuse happened in the showers at the school, in their dorm rooms, in Ritchie’s bed, in her office, and in some instances, even in their own homes.
A fifth former student describes being tasked with secretly escorting another underage classmate to Ritchie’s room after hours, sitting mere feet away from them while the alleged abuse unfolded – realizing only years later how “f**ked up” it was, she said.
In total, The U.S. Sun spoke to seven former students for this story – five women who accused Ritchie of sexually abusing students and two others who independently corroborated claims about Ritchie’s alleged grooming pattern and the culture of fear she reportedly cultivated within the school.
Even after almost 20 years, one of Ritchie’s accusers, Alexa Brand, said she still feels oddly beholden to Ritchie and is fearful of how she may react to her speaking out.
“I was describing this to someone the other day, but when you’re the prey of the predator, even once you reach adulthood, there’s always this talon that’s latched onto you somehow,” she said.
“And even today, coming forward, I worry about hurting her feelings or her being mad at me for telling the truth.”
Ritchie, 52, has not been charged nor accused by law enforcement of committing any crimes concerning the allegations made in this story. But at least three of The U.S. Sun’s sources say they have recently reported Ritchie to the District Attorney’s office for sexual abuse.
Repeated attempts to reach her for comment by phone have been unsuccessful.
A male voice was heard answering a phone registered to Ritchie’s home address and calling out, “It’s a reporter.” A female voice called out, “I know” in response before the line was abruptly cut off.
Last week, St. Lawrence County District Attorney Gary M. Pasqua announced his office had received dozens of reports from ex-Ivy Ridge students accusing various staff members of historic physical and sexual abuse. Pasqua declined to name any of the accused faculty.
Those allegations came in the wake of the release of Netflix‘s new documentary, The Program: Cons, Cults, and Kidnappings, a three-part series exposing years of alleged physical, psychological, and sexual abuse at the now-defunct troubled teen facility.
Ritchie worked at Ivy Ridge from 2001 until 2008, a year before the Ogdensburg, New York, campus closed its doors for good after being denied accreditation by the state’s education department, causing enrollment numbers to plummet.
Ivy Ridge was run in affiliation with the controversial and scandal-ridden organization, the World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools (WWASPS), founded by Robert Lichfield.
After leaving Ivy Ridge, Ritchie moved to another WWASPS facility on the California–Mexico border, the Sunset Bay Academy, which itself has been subject to dozens of allegations of child abuse and mistreatment.
Until recently, Ritchie had been working as a mental healththerapy aid at the St. Lawrence Psychiatric Center in Ogdensburg.
However, she was placed on leave earlier this month just days after The Program aired, a spokesperson for New York’s Office of Mental Health confirmed.
‘SERIAL ABUSER’
Ritchie was not directly accused of sexual abuse in Netflix’s documentary. However, she was accused of engaging in and enabling countless instances of physical and emotional abuse against young girls placed in her care.
The documentary, which featured interviews with former students, referred to an unnamed female staff member whom they accused of serial sexual abuse and designated a pedophile.
In the documentary, Alexa Brand claimed to have been sexually abused by the unidentified teacher. Alexa attended Ivy Ridge between June 2003 and May 2005, beginning when she was 15.
In an interview with The U.S. Sun, Alexa identified her alleged attacker as Ritchie.
Allison Anne, who appeared in the documentary alongside Alexa, also named Ritchie as Alexa’s alleged abuser in a TikTok posted on March 5.
Alexa claims Ritchie would groom her alleged targets by “love bombing” them, showering them with affection and physical touch, and providing them with a much-needed maternal refuge in an otherwise militant, hostile, and loveless environment.
According to Alexa, girls at the school were so starved of parental intimacy that they would vie for and even sabotage one another to secure Ritchie’s attention, writing up one another for rule-breaking to land themselves in her good graces.
That’s why predators are so effective because you think they care about you when really they don’t.
Alexa Brand
Ivy Ridge operated on a convoluted points system. Students could accumulate those points to climb levels within the program, allowing them more freedom as they progressed, such as socializing, wearing their hair down, food privileges, and more private dorms.
Ritchie typically paid the most attention to female students who had accumulated higher points totals, Alexa said.
Those within Ritchie’s inner orbit were made to feel special and protected and were afforded preferential treatment, according to Alexa, but they needed to be seen to be “working the program” to stay in her favor.
Often, without warning, Ritchie would suddenly shun certain members of her clique, giving them the cold shoulder and stripping them of most of their points, which would demote them to the lower levels of the program.
In her case, Alexa said Ritchie’s sudden abandonment of her caused overwhelming feelings of desperation and grief, reminiscent of how she felt when her parents shipped her off to Ivy Ridge in the first place.
She worked frantically to climb back up the levels to obtain Ritchie’s approval and affection again.
Once she did, Alexa claims Ritchie began pushing boundaries with her, involving physical touch that eventually escalated into full sexual contact.
She alleged that it was clear to her that resisting Ritchie’s advances would see her demoted to the lower levels again and scupper her chances of graduating, forcing her to comply.
Alexa alleges that she was abused more than a dozen times by Ritchie throughout the 23 months she spent at the school.
She claims to have been abused in her own dorm room when her roommate was away, in Ritchie’s room on campus, and during out-of-school visits to parental support groups for parents that she and other girls would often accompany Ritchie on.
Alexa further alleges to have been sexually abused by Ritchie on at least three occasions at her family home after leaving Ivy Ridge.
According to Alexa, Ritchie would ask her parents to come and stay with them periodically to sustain her and Alexa’s “special relationship.” (Alexa’s parents were unaware of the alleged abuse, Alexa said.)
Alexa provided The U.S. Sun with a copy of an email – dated April 12, 2005 – sent by Ritchie to Alexa’s mom, describing Alexa’s recent visits with Ritchie, writing that Alexa appeared to be pushing her away and their “unique relationship” in a different direction.
Alexa claimed to The U.S. Sun that Ritchie’s cycle of behavior was an insidious and deviously constructed grooming technique that she watched numerous other young girls be subjected to at Ivy Ridge.
The described pattern of behavior mirrors what six other sources told The U.S. Sun about Ritchie’s actions, whether experienced first-hand or observed from afar.
Describing the purported cycle, Alexa said, “If you were one of Amy’s girls, which is what we called ourselves, our risk of being physically abused by other staff members significantly decreased, so it was like a form of protection.
“And then once you start receiving this protection, there are more office visits with her, you really start establishing trust with her, and she adopts this mother-like role.
“You feel special and there’s a competition that begins to start among the girls who also want the attention and for someone to be looking out for them too.”
She continued, “All of a sudden, she’d act like you didn’t exist […] then some time would go by and she would redirect her attention back to you, and you’d do anything to keep it.
“So there would be times when things started to get more intense and she would start pushing boundaries. If you were reticent at all or hesitant about pushing those boundaries, she would shun you again; she would erase and ignore you,” she alleged.
“So when she started pushing the boundaries again, you felt it was okay, that it was fine. You thought, ‘Oh, I’ll do what I need to do.’
“It was a devious method and it was confusing because I was questioning myself, ‘Is this okay?’ I thought it must be okay because I thought she was protecting me and therefore wouldn’t hurt me.
“But that’s why predators are so effective because you think they care about you when really they don’t.”
‘PREYING ON TRAUMA’
Cynthia Lane (formerly Cence) and Kristin Schwab were both sent to Ivy Ridge by their parents after a traumatic series of events in each of their lives led them down a dark path.
Cynthia was 14 when she was forcibly enrolled in the program by her mother in September 2004, having attempted to take her life twice in three years.
After losing her father to cancer in 2001, Cynthia descended into a deep state of depression. Making matters worse, she said, is that her deeply religious mother blamed her for her father’s death, claiming he was punished because she wasn’t a true believer.
Thinking about her just makes my skin crawl.
Cynthia Lane
At age 11, Cynthia tried to take her own life in October 2001.
She attempted suicide again in June 2004 after being sexually abused by an adult neighbor and was sent to Ivy Ridge shortly after.
School administrators thoroughly noted Cynthia and her mother’s fractured relations in her enrollment file.
In an interview with The U.S. Sun, Cynthia accused Ritchie of “feeding” off the clear absence of a caring maternal figure in her life and using her familial trauma to groom and later allegedly sexually abuse her.
Cynthia, who suffers from PTSD, alleges she was sexually abused by Ritchie at least five or six times during her 12 months at the school.
Because of her condition, Cynthia says she has blind spots in her memory, particularly involving traumatic encounters.
Today, she says she has no visual recollections of the alleged abuse taking place but she can remember touch, sensations, and sounds, and can recount the moments leading up to each alleged instance of abuse.
Cynthia also kept a detailed journal during her time inside Ivy Ridge, numerous excerpts from which she shared with The U.S. Sun.
In one entry, dated January 6, 2005, she wrote, “Frustration. Hurt. Anger. Shame. I was raped…I was raped – I was raped.”
A second entry logged 13 days later, referenced a “surprise visitor” stopping by while she was being held in “intervention,” which was a term used by the school when a student is isolated in solitary confinement.
Cynthia alleges that both of these excerpts pertain to Ritchie.
She claimed, “There are some parts of my memory I don’t have, it’s completely blank, and I’m working with a therapist to recover them, but my first memory of something happening was on January 6, 2005.
“I was feeling so isolated […] those moments, I can remember things up to the point and then it’s just blank.
“I have a couple of memories, one in intervention where everything suddenly goes blank. I remember I was having a breakdown, and another staff member pulled me into Amy’s office and closed the door behind me.
“I remember [Amy] was sitting on her stupid wooden desk, and she was talking to me with such kindness, telling me she was here for me and everything was going to be okay.
“And I remember feeling at the time, ‘Thank God for Miss Amy. Thank God she’s on my side because I don’t feel like I have anyone else.'”
Timeline of events: Academy at Ivy Ridge
- 2001: Academy at Ivy Ridge is opened by Jason Finlinson in Ogdensburg, New York
- 2003: Congressman Rep. George Miller urges the US Attorney General to investigate Ivy Ridge and the 10 other WWASP facilities in the US and aboard over allegations of “an ongoing practice of physical and emotional abuse of children”
- 2004: Attorney General declines to investigate WWASP, citing a lack of jurisdiction
- 2005: Male students plan and carry out a riot at the school to protest inhumane living conditions; 12 were arrested and numerous others escaped but were later caught
- 2006: New York’s Education Department writes to Finlinson and voices concerns over “serious deficiencies” in Ivy Ridge’s education practices and health and safety protocol
- 2006: The state determined Ivy Ridge to be a behavior modification center, not a school, thus barring the facility from issuing student diplomas. The school was later fined
- 2009: Ivy Ridge closes its doors for good, following years of bad press which caused enrollment numbers to plummet
- 2024 (March 5): A three-part documentary series made by Ivy Ridge alumn Katherine Kubler is released on Netflix, exposing countless claims of physical, psychological, and sexual abuse
- 2024 (March 7): Jason Finlinson loses his job as a safety operations manager at a Utah-based construction facility
- 2024 (March 9): Ivy Ridge’s abandoned campus is listed for sale for $850k
- 2024 (March 11): St. Lawrence County District Attorney Gary M. Pasqua announces dozens of physical and sexual abuse claims at Ivy Ridge are under investigation
“And then she put her hand on my shoulder and it goes black,” she said.
“I can’t see it, but I remember the sensations, I remember the sounds, I remember the smells, I remember it feeling like a dream or a nightmare.
“Thinking about her just makes my skin crawl.”
Cynthia said Ritchie presented herself as a savior during her first few months at Ivy Ridge, swooping in to rescue Cynthia whenever she found herself in trouble – restoring her lost points or removing her from intervention.
Like Alexa, though, Cynthia claims that occasionally she’d be kicked to the curb by Ritchie as part of some cruel, twisted loyalty test.
Ritchie would issue Cynthia the cold shoulder for days or even weeks on end, she claimed, stirring feelings of jealousy and resentment, and stoking a determination to get back in Ritchie’s favor by any means necessary.
HARROWING CLAIMS
For Kristin Schwab, it was a much different story.
“She had it out for me from the beginning,” she claimed.
Kristin arrived at Ivy Ridge in September 2005 at age 17.
A talented student with a genius IQ, Kristin’s mental health tragically deteriorated when she was raped in the summer between 10th and 11th grade.
She began cutting herself and attempted suicide twice before her parents – in a desperate effort to save her – decided to enroll her in a behavioral health facility, eventually landing on Ivy Ridge.
Every morning for her first few weeks in the program, Kristin was required to go to Ritchie’s office to show Ritchie her arms and legs and prove that she hadn’t suffered any new cut marks.
Kristin claimed she had to remove the majority of her clothing during the daily encounters but was permitted to keep her underwear on.
Ivy Ridge’s rules stated that at least three people had to be present in any encounter between a student and staff; either two staff members and one student, or two students and one staff member.
When she was forced to strip down, Kristin said there was often one of Ritchie’s “favorite” students present in the room with them.
“She had this group of favorites whom she would give special treatment to,” said Kristin.
“And they’d be the ones sitting on her lap or cuddling with her. It was really weird.
“Every morning I’d go into her office and there was always another person in there that she was hanging all over when she had to search my arms and legs.
“For most of the time I was there, she was very cold to me. If you weren’t in her little group of people hanging all over her lap and whatnot, she would make your life hell.”
Physical touch and socialization between Ivy Ridge students were mostly outlawed, particularly among those with lower points totals.
But it wasn’t uncommon to see Ritchie dishing out hugs and offering reassuring pets in the hallways to a select number of girls, said both Kristin and Cynthia.
Kristin said she craved the parental intimacy Ritchie was openly offering and once even asked her if she could have a hug too.
Ritchie threatened to throw her to the ground if she tried to touch her, Kristin claimed.
“It happened a few times. One time, I remember clearly when we were standing in line in the hallways, she was talking with one of the girls next to me and gave her a hug,” she recounted.
“Then she hugged two or three more people around me, and then I wanted one, but she turned to me and said, ‘If you touch me right now I will restrain you.'”
Kristin said Ritchie would regularly send her to detention and never treated her with kindness or afforded her affection, only cruelty.
Every morning, lower-level students at Ivy Ridge were given just 15 minutes to wake up, get showered, get dressed, and line up in the hallway before class started for the day.
Conditions inside the school were unsanitary. Many of the girls had mold in their hair and were suffering from an extreme case of athlete’s foot.
The vast majority of the girls also smelled – some worse than others.
Those deemed the worst offenders would be singled out by staff for designated showers during the school day, four of The U.S. Sun’s sources recounted.
Kristin was among those chosen.
She claimed, “They would single out certain people and they would tell us that we smelled, and have other kids write up statements of fact complaining about it.
“They’d use it as an excuse to get us to the locker room in private.”
Kristin said she was summoned for additional showers at least once a month, sometimes multiple times in the same week, beginning just a few weeks into her time at Ivy Ridge.
During the first encounter, Kristin claims she was pulled into the shower room by Ritchie and another female staff member, who instructed her to remove her clothing because they were going to “teach” her how to wash.
“Once I got in, they grabbed my underwear and were passing it back and forth, sniffing it and making comments about the smell,” alleged Kristin.
“And then they came into the shower with a washcloth to bathe me like a toddler.”
Kristin claims she was sexually assaulted in this manner by Ritchie at least 10 times in the school’s showers during subsequent interactions.
“It was humiliating,” claimed Kristin. “I was afraid to tell anybody because it was drilled into me that it was because I smelled because I couldn’t wash myself properly, so she had to do this to me and show me how repeatedly.”
Kristin said she doesn’t recall Amy removing her clothing “but there were definitely multiple times where she came inside the shower and was touching me,” she alleged, pausing to fight back tears.
“She has a washcloth in her hands but I don’t think the washcloth ever touched me – it was her hands,” she said.
“And she would tell me over and over again all these nasty things, that I’m dirty, that I was disgusting, that she had to do this, that nobody was ever going to love me.
“It was so degrading.”
A DISTURBING PATTERN
Kristin’s allegations were independently corroborated by another student who claims she would often have to stand outside the shower stall while the alleged abuse took place.
The student, speaking on the condition of anonymity, will be referred to under the pseudonym “Jane” herein.
Jane, who spent more than two years at Ivy Ridge, said Kristin – for reasons unknown to her – was always a walking target of Ritchie’s.
It would start out with a Hershey’s bar, her touching my hair, telling me I’ve been really good, and that’s why I’m getting this special time with her.
'Jane'
Often, Jane would allegedly be summoned to the shower room to serve as the third present party for Kristin’s mandatory shower sessions with Ritchie, she claimed.
“Amy would make them undress in front of her and get into the shower,” recounted a tearful Jane, who was 15 at the time.
“And I remember she would make fun of Kristin […] she would talk about the weight she’d put on, tell her that she was smelly and that nobody wanted to be around her, and she’d do it in front of anyone listening – it was just so cruel.
“But I knew I couldn’t say anything or tell anyone because I got all these benefits because I was in Amy’s good graces.
“I had to keep my mouth shut because I didn’t want that happening to me.”
“Amy also made it clear that if we did say anything she’d just deny it,” claimed Jane.
Jane alleged that she, too, was previously forcibly washed by Ritchie.
And, like Alexa and Cynthia, she claims she was groomed by the girls’ dorm director for months, which eventually led to similar acts of sexual abuse.
“It started with candy bars,” said Jane. “She’d give me a Hershey’s bar and then it turned into special activities, like going outside and playing soccer or basketball and things like that.”
One of the special privileges afforded to Ritchie’s so-called favorites, all of the women said, was conducting tasks away from their peers, such as cleaning.
Eventually, Jane said that Ritchie asked her if she’d be willing to clean her personal quarters on campus, which she agreed to do.
“I remember she gave me a Hershey’s bar before I even cleaned, and I told her I didn’t even clean yet, but she told me not to worry,” recounted Jane.
“She told me to come and sit down next to her, and she started showing me these photos of her and her dog, telling me things about her personal life that I feigned interest in because I wanted to get away from my dorm.
“And this continued for about six months, just spending more time with her, and eventually she started brushing my hair, massaging my shoulders, and so on, but I didn’t think it was wrong because I saw her as a mom-type figure.”
One night, Jane claims that Ritchie came into her room after curfew and started talking to her as she was lying in bed.
Ritchie then allegedly asked Jane if she minded if she laid down next to her, to which the 15-year-old told her she could.
“She was like a mom that I didn’t have in there, so I told her, ‘Of course,'” claimed Jane.
“She started talking and then pushed my hair behind my ear and started heavy-petting.
“I remember it getting sexual in the bed, and I remember just laying there pretending I was asleep because I didn’t know what to do.
“And then she got mad at me because I didn’t react in the way that she wanted.
“She got so mad at me, that she told me she wasn’t going to waste her time with me and stormed out of the room.
“The first thing I thought was, ‘F**k, I f**ked up.'”
CULTURE OF FEAR
Jane claims her lack of acquiescence was met with immediate retribution and she was demoted down two levels in the program.
She spent the next few weeks accumulating points, trying to get back to the upper levels, and, after restoring her status, claimed to have caught Ritchie smirking at her in the hallway.
“I knew what that smirk meant,” said Jane. “I knew what she wanted me to do, so I did it. That’s how it all started.
“She came into my room or invited me into hers and I’d know what that meant.
“It would start out with a Hershey’s bar, her touching my hair, telling me I’ve been really good, and that’s why I’m getting this special time with her.
“And Amy made me feel like if I told anyone it would ruin our relationship. So I kept it close because I knew she was my only way out of there.”
Two other students who attended Ivy Ridge between 2003 and 2006, Michelle Rue and Julie Peysakhova, said they’d both often observe Ritchie coming into the girls’ dorms at night, sometimes even their own, to talk and hang out with some of the students.
Felicia Sanger, who attended Ivy Ridge between 2005 and 2007, claimed she’d often be tasked with covertly escorting her roommate to Ritchie’s quarters after hours.
Adhering to the school’s three-person rule, Felicia alleges Ritchie would distract her with the television or a coloring book while Ritchie sexually abused her friend less than four feet away in bed.
“It happened at least a dozen times where she’d call one specific girl into her room, turn on the TV, and tell me, ‘Felicia, here’s a show I’d thought you might like,’ and we weren’t allowed to watch TV so it blew our minds.
“Eventually she would take them into her bed, and I remember at some point looking over to see Amy – who was dressed in a red flannel button down – with her breasts and bra exposed, cuddling my roommate,” alleged Felicia.
“I knew I wasn’t meant to be looking so I turned back around to watch the TV […] but that’s how she’d do it, she’d distract me with something like markers which would totally amuse me for like three hours in that environment while she molested a friend of mine.
“Sometimes there would be groups of us in there, but there would only be one person next to her in the bed.
“It took me until my 20s to realize what was going on was f**king gross.
“And I felt terrible knowing that I’d kind of hand-delivered somebody I care about to a predator […] that’s been really hard to come to terms with.”
A HORRIFIC REALIZATION
After leaving Ivy Ridge, Alexa, Cynthia, Kristin, and Jane were contacted by Ritchie in some way, sometimes for years after, including in emails, messages on Facebook, and with some even meeting up with her for coffee.
The last time Felicia saw Ritchie was a week after her graduation in March 2007, when she went to visit a friend from Ivy Ridge in New England after a member of the friend’s family died unexpectedly.
To Felicia’s surprise, Ritchie had also traveled to the girl’s home for the funeral and had been invited by the friend’s family to stay the night.
They all slept in the basement, and Felicia says Ritchie and Felicia’s grieving friend shared the same bed.
“[The friend’s] parents thought they had a unique relationship. They thought they could trust Amy, and that the relationship was normal and healthy,” claimed Felicia.
“I know Amy continued to visit there, long after the program ended until she cut off ties after this particular student said she couldn’t do it anymore. It made her too uncomfortable.
“She begged her parents to stop inviting her over. She was free from that place and she wanted to be free of Amy too.”
Alexa also asked her parents to stop inviting Ritchie to their home to see her.
She told The U.S. Sun even after her parents cut contact, Ritchie would continue to reach out to her periodically on Facebook, attempting to reminisce about memories from Ivy Ridge and the times they shared.
In one such message, Ritchie sent an image of lyrics from a song Alexa had written for her years earlier, telling her “I want to hear this again” and “I need you to sing this to me.”
Alexa eventually agreed to meet Ritchie in 2013. As soon as she saw her, she said her blood ran cold and she realized at that moment that the alleged “unique relationship” they’d shared at Ivy Ridge was, in fact, child abuse.
“I wanted nothing more than to get away from her,” recounted Alexa. “I knew it wasn’t okay, that what happened shouldn’t have happened, and that it was wrong.
“And she was pretending that everything was normal and that she was so happy to see me.”
SEEKING JUSTICE
All the women interviewed for this story said they want to see Ritchie criminally charged by the DA’s office.
They also all voiced concern that Ritchie had been allowed to work at another WWASPS facility after leaving Ivy Ridge, and more recently work at a psychiatric center, sharing close contact with even more vulnerable individuals.
The St. Lawrence District Attorney and the New York State Office of Mental Health have been contacted for comment.
Last week, DA Gary M. Pasqua told The U.S. Sun that his office had been inundated with calls alleging physical and sexual abuse at Ivy Ridge.
He urged any other potential victims to come forward and assured criminal charges would be filed for any alleged offenses that fall within the statute of limitations.
If you or someone you know is affected by any of the issues raised in this story, call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673.