Utah pulls Provo Canyon School license after safety violations
Utah regulators revoked Provo Canyon School’s license after citing safety and care failures at the facility where Paris Hilton says she was abused.
By Daniel Okafor · Business Editor
3 min read
Utah has revoked the license of Provo Canyon School’s Springville campus after regulators found repeated health and safety failures, according to the state Department of Health & Human Services. The move targets a youth residential facility long criticized by former students, including Paris Hilton, who has said she was abused there as a teenager.
The revocation took effect Monday, the Associated Press reported. In a letter cited by AP, state officials said the school failed to provide required health and safety services to clients.
According to the Utah Department of Health & Human Services, the school has 15 days to ask for a hearing. The state also said all services at the campus must end by Aug. 6, AP reported.
State cites care and staffing failures
The state’s findings include violations dating back to 2025, according to AP. Regulators cited problems including failure to raise staff-to-client ratios, an unnecessary restraint, aggressive physical contact with a client, care neglect and delays in verifying employee information or submitting applicant background checks.
Utah health officials had already placed temporary restrictions on the school in May, AP reported. The agency said at the time that staff did not immediately seek medical care for a student who had serious injuries.
Provo Canyon School did not immediately answer an AP request for comment. The school is now under different ownership, and its administration has said it cannot comment on events that preceded the ownership change, including Hilton’s time there, according to AP.
Hilton says the decision validates survivors
Hilton, 45, attended Provo Canyon School for nearly a year in the late 1990s, according to AP. She has alleged that staff beat her, observed her while she showered, gave her unidentified pills and put her in solitary confinement without clothing.
In a statement provided Tuesday, Hilton said children had reported abuse, neglect and trauma at the school for more than five decades. “Today, the state confirmed what survivors have known all along: Provo Canyon School failed the children in its care,” she said.
Hilton also said she identified with the children still inside the facility. “I was one of those children,” she said. “I know what it feels like to cry for help and believe no one is coming.”
Hilton has urged Utah licensing officials to shut down the school, AP reported. She has also testified before Congress and state legislatures about youth residential programs, and AP reported that she helped support laws aimed at protecting teenagers in Utah and 15 other states.
Utah has been a major center for what critics call the troubled teen industry, according to AP, referring to private, for-profit residential programs for children with behavioral issues. In June, Hilton returned to Provo Canyon School to support two families who filed lawsuits alleging mistreatment of their children there, AP reported.
This story draws on original reporting from Fortune.