Utah regulators have revoked the license of a girls’ boarding school where Paris Hilton has said she was abused as a teenager, ordering the facility to end services at its Springville campus by August 6.
The Utah Department of Health and Human Services said Provo Canyon School had “failed to provide applicable health and safety services for clients.” In a notice sent Monday, July 7, the department described the issue as the “provider’s chronic, ongoing noncompliance with applicable rules, statutes, or requirements.” Regulators cited findings that included unnecessary restraint, aggressive physical contact and instances of neglect dating back to 2025, including an alleged incident involving one resident and a separate failure to protect clients from potential harm or acts of violence.
The school’s girls’ facility, which is described on its website as an intensive psychiatric youth residential treatment center for girls ages 12 to 18, has 15 days to challenge the order, including by requesting a hearing.
Hilton, 45, who has become one of the most prominent public critics of the so-called troubled-teens industry, welcomed the state’s decision and said the school had long ignored former students’ accounts.
“For more than fifty years, children came forward with stories of abuse, neglect, and trauma,” Hilton said in a statement to the BBC.
“Today, the state confirmed what survivors have known all along: Provo Canyon School failed the children in its care. I was one of those children. I know what it feels like to cry for help and believe no one is coming. Today, children still inside that facility know someone is finally coming to protect them.”
In a separate statement to Rolling Stone, Hilton added that the move showed that institutions could still be held responsible, even after years of public pressure from former residents.
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“The little girl in me who was told she would never be believed feels so validated today. We were telling the truth. We always were. No institution is too powerful to be held accountable. When survivors refuse to stay silent, change is possible.”
Hilton also reacted on Instagram, writing that “nothing can erase the trauma so many of us endured,” but calling the license decision “a powerful step toward protecting future generations.” She thanked survivors, advocates and those who believed them, saying she was “endlessly grateful” to everyone who helped bring the issue to this point.
Provo Canyon School said it was reviewing the state’s action and had not ruled out fighting the decision.
School officials told local media they were “evaluating all available legal and administrative options, including an appeal”.
“As this is an ongoing matter, we are limited in what we can say at this time. Our priority remains providing safe, high-quality care and support for adolescents and their families, and we remain committed to serving those in need.”
Hilton attended the Utah school in the 1990s, when it was under different ownership. She has said she spent nearly a year at the Springville campus as a teenager, an experience she began speaking about publicly in a 2020 documentary about her life.
Her parents sent her to the school because they believed her partying had become unmanageable. They did not know what she was experiencing inside the facility.
“My parents were promised that tough love would fix me and that sending me across the country was the only way,” Hilton said in 2021, adding that her time in such facilities “haunts her to this day”.
During a 2021 appearance on Capitol Hill, Hilton described being stripped of her identity at the school.
“At Provo Canyon School in Utah, I was given clothes with a number on the tag. I was no longer me, I was only number 127.”
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She also alleged she was kept indoors for 11 months without sunlight or fresh air, watched in the shower by male staff, assaulted, called vulgar names, forced to take medication without a diagnosis, denied a proper education and placed in solitary confinement in a room she described as covered in scratch marks and smeared with blood for up to 20 hours.
Since going public, Hilton has campaigned for stricter oversight of private youth treatment programs and has pushed for laws aimed at protecting teenagers placed in residential facilities as part of her broader campaign against the “troubled teen” industry, a network of private, often for-profit centers that market themselves to parents as treatment or behavior-modification programs.
Provo Canyon School has previously responded to Hilton’s allegations, stating that the facility changed ownership in 2000. In 2020, its parent company, Universal Health Services, paid $117 million to resolve alleged False Claims Act violations, a law that includes provisions tied to whether patients receive adequate and appropriate services.
The Springville girls’ campus is not the only Provo Canyon School facility facing scrutiny. State health officials also placed temporary restrictions on the school’s boys’ campus in Provo, Utah, in June.
According to the school’s website, the boys’ campus “continues to serve those under our care, but is not permitted to accept new admissions at this time”.
That restriction followed an inquiry that found staff failed to protect a boy during a fight and did not immediately seek medical care for his injuries.
Provo Canyon School has faced mounting calls for closure from Hilton and other former residents who have described abuse, neglect and trauma at the facility. Complaints were also filed with Utah’s licensing agency last month.
The latest action by state regulators marks a major development in a campaign Hilton has pursued for years, turning her own allegations about the school into a broader push for accountability across youth residential treatment programs.
Moumita Basuroychowdhury is a Contributing Reporter at The National Digest. After earning an economics degree at Cornell University, she moved to NYC to pursue her MFA in creative writing. She enjoys reporting on science, business and culture news. You can reach her at moumita.b@thenationaldigest.com.
