Utah has revoked the license of Provo Canyon School's campus in Springville, a residential treatment facility where the hotel heiress and media personality Paris Hilton has said she was abused as a teenager. The state said the school "failed to provide applicable health and safety services for clients."
The action took effect Monday. According to the state's letter, all services at the Springville campus must be terminated by August 6, and the school has 15 days to request a hearing before the Utah Department of Health and Human Services.
What the State Cited
The revocation rests on a wide-ranging set of citations dating back to 2025. They include failing to increase staff-to-client ratios, an unnecessary restraint and aggressive physical contact with a client, neglecting care, and not verifying employee information or submitting background checks for applicants in a timely manner. In May, state health officials had already imposed temporary restrictions after finding that staff did not seek immediate medical care for a student with serious injuries.
Shannon Thoman-Black, director of the division of licensing and background checks at the state health department, said the facility must close by Aug. 6 and that the owners "may not reapply for a new license for five years." The department will keep conducting weekly inspections through the wind-down, she said, and framed the timeline as a matter of getting students out safely rather than abruptly. "It is actually incredibly unsafe if we were to go in and just stick a sign on the door and say, 'Everybody out,'" she said. "We have the responsibility to make sure these kids get discharged into safe places."
In a statement to CBS News, Provo Canyon School said it disagreed with the decision. "We are evaluating all available legal and administrative options, including an appeal," the school said, adding that it was limited in what it could say about an ongoing matter and that its "priority remains providing safe, high-quality care and support for adolescents and their families."
A Distinction Worth Keeping
Two timelines run through this story, and they are not the same. The current revocation is based on violations documented in 2025 under the school's present, new ownership. The abuse Hilton describes dates to the late 1990s, when she spent almost a year there. She alleges that staff members beat her, watched her shower, fed her unknown pills, and locked her in solitary confinement. The school, now under different owners, describes itself as a psychiatric residential treatment facility for youth ages 12 to 18.
Hilton, 45, has spent years pressing Utah regulators to close the school. "The news I've been fighting and praying for is finally here," she wrote on social media. "After years of survivors bravely speaking out and refusing to be silenced, the children inside will finally be removed."
Part of a Bigger Fight
Hilton has become one of the most visible figures campaigning against what advocates call the "troubled teen industry," a network of private, for-profit residential centers for children with behavioral issues. She has testified in Congress and before state legislatures across the country, helping pass laws to protect teens in Utah and 15 other states. In June, she returned to the school to speak in support of two families who filed lawsuits alleging their children were mistreated there.
Utah has long played an outsized role in that industry, and the closure of a facility as prominent as Provo Canyon School is a notable marker in a broader push for oversight. For now, the immediate question is a logistical one: where the students currently enrolled will go before the August deadline, and whether the school's promised appeal changes any of it.
Sources
CBS News: License of Utah boarding school where Paris Hilton alleged she was abused is revoked
Utah Department of Health and Human Services
