A fire broke out on the property that housed the former Elan School on Sunday morning, according to a report from WMTW.
The Poland Fire Department was on scene by around 6:30 a.m., according to the report. Further information was not immediately available.
The Elan School in Poland closed in April 2011. It was a private, for-profit boarding school that was opened in 1970 by a psychiatrist, Dr. Gerald Davidson, and businessman Joseph Ricci.
Elan School aimed to treat troubled youths who had behavioral problems, such as difficulty with authority figures and temperament issues, according to the school’s now-defunct website.
The school was the subject of a number of inquiries into its treatment of students, with numerous former students taking to online communities to share their negative experiences including accounts of physical and emotional abuse they allegedly received while attending Elan.
The school reportedly was investigated by the Maine Department of Education, but no abusive tactics were disclosed at the time. The school’s closure in 2011 was driven by a lack of enrollment, according to an article published at the time in the Bangor Daily News.
