Utah officials on Monday moved to shut down a residential treatment center for teenage girls with behavioral and mental health issues after Paris Hilton and others who had been sent there said they had been subjected to abuse.
The Utah Department of Health and Human Services said the Provo Canyon School’s campus in Springville, which can enroll up to 120 girls, had repeatedly violated rules intended to safeguard the well-being of the teens under its care.
In one case, the department said, video footage showed a staff member striking a client who was being physically restrained. In other instances, it said, staff members failed to ensure that the teens there had the right to be “free from discrimination,” “free from potential harm or acts of violence” and to be “treated with dignity and respect.”
The Provo Canyon School operates two campuses: one for boys in Provo, Utah, and one for girls in Springville, south of Provo. The Health Department said it had revoked the Springville campus’s residential treatment license, effective Monday, and had ordered it to terminate all services by Aug. 6, when the campus must close.
Last month, state officials placed restrictions on the license for the boys’ campus, forbidding it from accepting new clients and requiring it cooperate with increased monitoring visits, after accusing it of health and safety violations.
In one case, the department said, the Provo campus failed to summon emergency medical services after a minor there was knocked unconscious and sustained severe head and facial injuries during a physical assault. Instead, the department said, the center called “a nonmedical transport company” to take the client to the hospital, delaying treatment.
“No child should be hurt in a program that is meant to protect them,” Shannon Thoman-Black, the director of the Utah Division of Licensing and Background Checks, said at a news conference on Tuesday.
Tim Marshall, the chief executive of the Provo Canyon School, said in a statement that the school disagreed with the decision to revoke the Springville campus’s license and that it was “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,” Mr. Marshall said. “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 Provo Canyon School describes itself on its website as an “intensive, psychiatric youth residential treatment center” that provides drug treatment, therapy and educational and recreational programs for children ages 12 to 18 with a range of behavioral and mental health disorders. It is owned by Universal Health Services, a company based in King of Prussia, Pa.
Ms. Hilton, the celebrity socialite, had helped draw attention to the center, saying she had been beaten, spat on and forced into solitary confinement there as a teenager nearly 30 years ago. She spoke about her experience in a 2020 documentary, “This Is Paris,” and then testified about it before Congress and the Utah State Legislature. She also spoke at a recent news conference in Utah with parents who said their children had been abused at the Provo Canyon School.
In a statement on her Instagram account, Ms. Hilton welcomed the state’s decision to revoke the center’s license in Springville.
“The place that hurt me, and countless children before and after me, will no longer be allowed to operate,” she wrote. “The children inside are going to be removed, which has been my dream for a long time.”
Other former clients have also accused the center of mistreatment. In 2020, The Salt Lake Tribune reported that eight former clients had described staff members piling on children and chemically sedating them. Former clients also told The Tribune that children were sent to rooms where they were isolated as punishment for infractions like not getting out of bed.
In 2020, Kat Von D, a tattoo artist and television personality, said that Ms. Hilton’s documentary had prompted her to share her experiences at the Provo Canyon School, where she was sent when she was 15.
“I spent those 6 traumatic months of my teenage years, only to leave with major PTSD and other traumas due to the unregulated, unethical and abusive protocols of this ‘school,’” she wrote on Instagram in 2020.
State Senator Michael K. McKell, a Republican who has pushed for greater oversight of teen treatment centers, said the Health Department made the right decision to revoke the Springville campus’s license. He said it was “inexcusable” that a staff member there had, according to state officials, struck a client who was being restrained.
“We need to make sure these kids are safe,” Mr. McKell said in an interview. “And if you can’t ensure the safety of the kids you treat, then you shouldn’t be treating these kids.”
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