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Utah regulators revoked the residential treatment license for the Springville campus of Provo Canyon School after an investigation uncovered multiple violations of health and safety standards according to a notice issued by the Department of Health and Human Services. The department cited unnecessary restraint aggressive physical contact instances of neglect failure to report critical incidents within one day and inadequate staff training with some issues dating to 2025. All services at the girls facility must terminate by August 6 while the school has 15 days to file an appeal the department’s letter stated. The action followed complaints lodged last month and builds on earlier sanctions imposed on the school’s separate boys campus in Provo.
Paris Hilton who attended the school in the 1990s under previous ownership welcomed the revocation in a statement to multiple outlets including the BBC. The 45-year-old advocate who has campaigned against the troubled teen industry for years said the state had confirmed what survivors have known for more than five decades that the facility failed the children in its care. Hilton added that she knew what it felt like to cry for help believing no one was coming but that children still inside now know someone is coming to protect them. She has described her own experience as involving physical assault forced medication and solitary confinement.
School officials said they were evaluating all available legal and administrative options including an appeal according to comments provided to local media outlets such as the Salt Lake Tribune and ABC4. The facility which describes itself as an intensive psychiatric youth residential treatment center for girls ages 12 to 18 stated that its priority remains providing safe high-quality care and support for adolescents and their families. Ownership of the school changed after Hilton’s time there with Universal Health Services acquiring it in 2000 the Salt Lake Tribune has reported in previous coverage.
The revocation arrives amid a lawsuit filed in June 2026 by two families who alleged staff delayed medical care for injured clients and failed to protect residents according to filings detailed by ABC4 and the Deseret News. Utah’s Office of Licensing had conducted 341 investigations across the school’s four campuses in the past five years resulting in 27 violations those records show. In June regulators had already placed strict conditions on the Provo boys campus after staff failed to protect a resident during a fight and did not seek immediate medical attention for his injuries including a jaw fracture and brain bleed the Department of Health and Human Services reported at the time.
Provo Canyon School which opened in 1971 has faced allegations of physical psychological and sexual abuse for decades according to accounts compiled by the Salt Lake Tribune and advocacy organizations tracking the troubled teen sector. Early lawsuits in the 1970s and 1980s including one by the American Civil Liberties Union of Utah challenged practices such as polygraph tests and physical control methods though the school prevailed in that case. Renewed scrutiny followed Hilton’s 2020 documentary and subsequent testimony before Congress and state legislatures that highlighted what she called systemic issues in for-profit youth treatment programs.
Hilton’s advocacy contributed to passage of the Stop Institutional Child Abuse Act by Congress in December 2024 which aims to increase transparency and protections in youth residential facilities according to NBC News coverage of the bill’s final vote. The legislation followed years of lobbying by Hilton and coalitions of survivors and child welfare groups that documented patterns of over-medication isolation and restraint across the industry. Utah itself enacted oversight reforms in 2021 that imposed new reporting requirements on such facilities in response to similar campaigns the state’s health department has noted in prior announcements.
The troubled teen industry which operates numerous programs in Utah and other states has drawn federal and state attention for operating with limited regulation while charging families substantial fees for behavioral treatment. Data from advocacy trackers indicate that hundreds of facilities have generated thousands of abuse complaints over decades though exact nationwide figures remain difficult to compile because of varying state oversight. The Department of Health and Human Services emphasized that its latest action against Provo Canyon School underscores requirements for all licensed providers to maintain client safety without exception.
