After more than 50 years of unaddressed survivor claims of mistreatment and a years-long advocacy campaign led by high-profile survivor Paris Hilton, Utah state regulators have officially revoked the operating license of Provo Canyon School’s Springville girls’ residential campus.
Utah’s Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) announced the license cancellation in an official letter, ordering all campus operations to cease permanently by August 6. The regulator documented a years-long pattern of serious noncompliance at the facility dating back to 2025, including unnecessary physical restraint of students, aggressive inappropriate physical contact between staff and residents, and multiple confirmed instances of neglect. DHHS confirmed the school repeatedly failed to meet required health and safety standards for the youth in its care. The facility, which markets itself as an intensive psychiatric residential treatment center for girls aged 12 to 18, has been given 15 days from the date of the order to file an appeal against the decision. School officials confirmed to local media they are currently reviewing all legal and administrative options, including a formal challenge to the revocation. “As this is an ongoing matter, we are limited in what we can say at this time,” a school spokesperson said in a statement. “Our priority remains providing safe, high-quality care and support for adolescents and their families, and we remain committed to serving those in need.”
The regulatory action comes after decades of allegations from former students, spearheaded by 45-year-old media personality and hotel heiress Paris Hilton, who was sent to the Provo Canyon School campus as a teenager in the 1990s, when the facility operated under different ownership. Hilton first went public with her allegations in a 2020 documentary about her life, claiming she endured severe abuse during her 11-month stay, including physical assault, forced medication, and extended periods in solitary confinement, all under the guise of “behavioral reform.” She told the BBC in a recent statement that the revocation confirms what survivors have long known. “For more than fifty years, children came forward with stories of abuse, neglect, and trauma. 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,” she said. “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.”
Hilton’s advocacy has gone far beyond calling for the closure of this specific facility. She has become a leading voice against abuse in the so-called “troubled teen industry,” a network of private for-profit residential treatment facilities that house youth labeled as having behavioral issues. In December 2024, she testified before the U.S. Congress about her experience, and has lobbied legislatures across multiple U.S. states to pass new regulations to protect vulnerable teens in these facilities. Echoing her years of advocacy, Hilton emphasized after the revocation that institutional power does not shield bad actors from accountability. “When survivors refuse to stay silent, change is possible,” she said.
This is not the only regulatory action taken against Provo Canyon School in recent months. Last June, health officials imposed emergency temporary restrictions on the facility’s separate boys’ campus in Provo, Utah, after an investigation found staff failed to intervene to protect a student during a violent altercation and delayed seeking urgent medical care for his injuries. Prior to the Springville license revocation, hundreds of former students had joined Hilton in calling for the facility to be shut down, and a new round of formal complaints was submitted to the state licensing agency just last month.