- Utah's Department of Health imposed conditions on Provo Canyon School's license.
- This follows a lawsuit alleging negligence and an investigation revealing alleged safety failures.
- The school must comply with 10 conditions including revised emergency protocols and monitoring.
SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Department of Health and Human Services has placed immediate conditions on the license of the Provo campus of the Provo Canyon School that has for years been at the center of discussion of Utah's youth treatment center industry.
The state action comes three days after attorneys and celebrity advocate Paris Hilton announced two families are suing the school, alleging negligence involving their children who were under the care of the youth psychiatric residential treatment facility.
Following an investigation into a May 18 incident that revealed "severe safety failures," Florencia Schapira De Grout, director of the Office of Licensing with the Department of Health and Human Services, issued conditions after three counts of noncompliance.
According to investigators, the school failed to summon emergency medical services for a minor attending the school who "was rendered unconscious and sustained severe head and facial injuries during a physical assault." The school instead called a nonmedical transport company, delaying medical treatment for the minor.
Another count alleges that the school failed to "use behavior management training and perform appropriate holds and restraints" during an altercation between two of the minors attending the school, leading to injuries.
The final count claims the school knew about threats to one of the minors and received unit transfer requests but did not move the minor to a different unit.
"No child should ever be harmed in programs meant to protect them," agency director Shannon Thoman-Black said. "Our role is to hold providers to the highest standards of safety, and we will use every regulatory tool available to ensure vulnerable youth are protected."
The formal notice by the state places 10 immediate conditions upon the Provo Canyon School's license. These conditions include:
- Not accepting new clients or readmitting previous clients.
- Maintaining the required staff-to-patient ratio.
- Cooperating with increased department monitoring visits.
- Paying $393.37 for each department monitoring visit.
- Notifying attendees and their legal guardians about the notice of agency action within five business days.
- Posting the official notice of agency action on-site and on the homepage of each of its websites within five business days.
- Reporting each safety concern from attendees, parents or guardians to the Department of Health and Human Services.
- Informing all staff of the notice of agency action.
- Revising its emergency protocol policies to ensure staff members are allowed to call 911 when an attendee's health or safety is at risk.
- Creating a comprehensive threat assessment and violence prevention policy.
The Division of Licensing and Background Checks will be monitoring the Provo campus of the Provo Canyon School to ensure strict compliance to the agency's mandated conditions.
Hilton was sent to the facility when she was 17, and has previously disclosed that she had experienced multiple forms of mistreatment and abuse. In 2021, Hilton lobbied the Utah Legislature to reform policies surrounding teen treatment centers and has since taken up the cause with Congress.
