Controversial Bountiful school abruptly closes its doors

A school in Bountiful, with links to jailed polygamist leader Warren Jeffs has abruptly closed its doors.

Bountiful Elementary-Secondary School shut down without explanation in September, the province’s Education Ministry confirmed. The school, which received provincial funding for some grade levels, had an enrolment of 265 students last year.

Most of its students now rely on home-schooling in a community that has long been accused of using classrooms to indoctrinate children rather than educate them.

Education Ministry spokesman Scott Sutherland said the students are enrolled in a program known as Homelinks, which connects parents and children with certified teachers who work with families to craft an educational program for each student. Professional teachers evaluate students’ work, but most of the instruction still occurs at home.

Bountiful is a commune of about 1,000 people in southeastern B.C., not far from the U.S. border. Residents follow a fundamentalist form of Mormonism, which, unlike the mainstream Mormon church, condones polygamy as a tenet of the faith.

Bountiful Elementary-Secondary was one of two schools in the community, which itself is split into two divided factions.

The school was controlled by the faction that remains connected to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or FLDS, and its jailed leader Jeffs.

The FLDS side of the community is considered more extreme and isolated than the faction led by Winston Blackmore, who split with the church a decade ago.

Blackmore’s school, Mormon Hills School, remains open with an enrolmen tt hisyearof17 8students, according to the Education Ministry.

Education in the community came under scrutiny during a high-profile trial in late 2010 and early 2011 that examined Canada’s polygamy law. The trial heard evidence of declining enrolment at both schools, particularly at higher grade levels.

The trial also heard testimony from former Bountiful residents, who recalled being taught religion for several hours each day at the FLDS-run school.