A southeast Missouri religious reform school questioned for its strict disciplining of troubled teenagers, and run by a man who once operated a controversial school in Mississippi, has closed.

The closing ends a run marked lately by dwindling enrollment and legal dustups over its methods. Mountain Park Baptist Boarding Academy closed Friday along with its sister school, Palm Lane Academy in Florida.

Mountain Park and its Florida counterpart both relied on Christian fundamentalist teachings, strict discipline and corporal punishment to work with teenagers with behavioral problems. But Mountain Park has long attracted critics, particularly after a Florida teen was killed there by two other students in 1996.

Mountain Park's founder, the Reverend Bob Wills, previously ran a Hattiesburg school that was sued in 1982 for allegedly paddling pregnant teens and detaining a 19-year-old against her will. A settlement required changes at the school, but Wills ultimately closed it and relocated to Missouri in 1987.

(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)