Utah revokes license of boarding school where Paris Hilton says she was abused

Utah revoked the license of Provo Canyon School’s Springville girls campus on July 7, 2026, giving the boarding school 15 days to request a hearing and, if the action stands, until August 6 to shut down. State regulators found the facility had “failed to provide applicable health and safety services for clients.”

The order cited multiple noncompliance findings, including failure to protect a client from harm, failure to ensure clients were free from neglect, and unnecessary restraint and aggressive physical contact. The action followed a June complaint from the Disability Law Center, Utah’s protection and advocacy agency, after the nonprofit visited the Provo and Springville campuses and reported violence, self-harm, inadequate medical care and chronic staffing shortages.

Utah had already imposed 10 immediate conditions on the school’s license on June 18, 2026, after investigators examined a May 18 incident in which staff allegedly failed to protect a minor during a physical assault and delayed emergency medical care by calling a non-medical transport company instead of 911. Those restrictions barred new admissions and readmissions, required unannounced inspections, and ordered the school to rewrite emergency policies, report safety concerns and post the state notice publicly.

Paris Hilton, who attended Provo Canyon School as a teenager and has spent recent years pushing for its closure, returned to Utah on June 15 to support two families suing the school over alleged medical neglect and malpractice. At that press conference, Hilton said she knew “what it feels like to be trapped behind those walls” and called the school “a facility that is the problem.”

The lawsuits describe a 13-year-old boy who allegedly suffered a fractured jaw and traumatic brain injury after a fight staff allowed to happen, and a teenage girl who allegedly developed acute renal failure and was not taken to a hospital until nine days after she became seriously ill. Hilton said the state had opened 341 investigations into the school over five years and urged officials to shut it down permanently.

Provo Canyon School is owned by Universal Health Services, which bought the institution in 2000, long after Hilton left. The Springville girls campus is the one targeted in the revocation, while the boys program in Provo was not included in this action. School CEO Tim Marshall said the institution disagrees with the state’s decision and is weighing legal and administrative options, including an appeal, while saying its priority remains safe, high-quality care for adolescents and their families.