Health and safety violations have led the state of Utah to shut down the “scared straight” school for troubled adolescents, where famed socialite and businesswoman Paris Hilton says she was subjected to brutal abuse after being sent there as a teenager.
The Provo Canyon School campus in Springville, Utah, had its operating license revoked after state officials found it to be noncompliant on multiple issues. Several of those violations reflect the same problems survivors and activists have long raised about Provo Canyon School and other “scared straight” camps and treatment facilities, including a failure to maintain adequate staffing levels, instances of unnecessary restraint and aggressive physical contact with clients, neglect of students in the school’s care and failures to verify employee information or conduct timely background checks on job applicants.
The state ordered the campus closed on Monday, according to Shannon Thoman-Black, director of the division of licensing and background checks at the Utah Department of Health and Human Services. The school now has 15 days to comply with the order and cease operations at the Springville campus.
The closure did not come out of the blue for Provo Canyon School’s leadership. Temporary restrictions were imposed on the facility in May after staff failed to seek immediate medical care for a student suffering from serious injuries.
