The Utah Department of Health and Human Services has revoked the residential treatment licence of Provo Canyon School’s Springville campus, a psychiatric facility for girls aged 12 to 18, and ordered it to cease all services by 6 August. The decision, effective Monday, follows a series of citations for failing to maintain adequate health and safety standards, including unnecessary physical restraint, aggressive contact with a minor, neglect of care, and failure to verify staff backgrounds in a timely manner. State officials said the owners are barred from reapplying for a licence for five years, and the department will conduct weekly inspections as the remaining children are discharged to safe placements.

The school’s chief executive, Tim Marshall, said in a statement that the institution disagrees with the decision and is evaluating all legal and administrative options, including an appeal. He added that the priority remains providing safe, high-quality care. Shannon Thoman-Black, director of the licensing division at the Utah DHHS, told reporters that an abrupt closure would be unsafe, and that the department has a responsibility to ensure orderly discharges. The facility has fifteen days to request a hearing.

Paris Hilton, who spent eleven months at the school in the late 1990s, described the revocation as the news she had been fighting and praying for. In a social media post, she said the state had confirmed what survivors had long alleged: that the school failed the children in its care. Hilton has testified before the US Congress and state legislatures, alleging that during her time there she was physically assaulted, forcibly medicated, placed in solitary confinement without clothing, and subjected to sexual abuse by staff members, including what she described as non-medical cervical examinations. Her advocacy has contributed to legislative reforms in Utah and fifteen other states aimed at regulating the network of private, for-profit residential centres for children with behavioural issues.

The Springville campus had been operating under a conditional licence following a previous citation. The violations cited by the state date back to 2025 and include an incident in which a staff member allegedly assaulted a student who was already restrained, and the failure to seek immediate medical care for a seriously injured youth. Utah has long been a hub for such facilities, a sector that has drawn scrutiny from child welfare advocates. The school, now under different ownership from the period when Hilton attended, also faces temporary restrictions on its boys’ campus in Provo, imposed in June after an inquiry found staff failed to protect a boy during a fight and did not obtain prompt medical attention. The boys’ campus is barred from accepting new admissions while continuing to serve current residents.