(AP/WSPA) - A residential treatment school for girls in the North Carolina mountains has closed after a state investigation and the deaths of two of its students who took their own lives.

Asheville Academy announced Tuesday that it released all of its students from its Weaverville campus this past weekend, saying the decision to voluntarily close was difficult.

The closing came a few days after North Carolina mental health officials ordered the academy to stop taking in new students until the school could show it was protecting girls from harm, abuse and neglect and was properly supervising employees.

That order came after the launch of a state investigation into Asheville Academy that began May 8, five days after a 13-year-old girl killed herself at the school, officials said.

The let

See Full Page