Provo Canyon School
Provo Canyon School (PCS) is a psychiatric youth involuntary residential treatment center in Provo, Utah, owned and operated by Universal Health Services (UHS) since 2000.[4] The involuntary residential program claims to use an "Acuity Based Care" (ABC) model that identifies and re-assesses the strengths and needs of its students. Residents instead receive a wide range of interventions including psychotropic drug therapy; use of physical restraints; humiliation; starvation; and solitary confinement.[5]
| Provo Canyon School | |
|---|---|
| Address | |
North central Utah Utah county United States
| |
| Information | |
| Funding type | Private |
| Religious affiliation(s) | Nonsectarian |
| Founded | 1971 |
| Status | Open |
| Administrator | Dave Campbell (girls campus) |
| Grades | 3 to 12 |
| Gender | Males and females |
| Age | 8 to 17 |
| Enrollment | |
| Capacity | 225 (combined) |
| Student to teacher ratio | |
| Language | English |
| Schedule type | Daily bell class rotation |
| Schedule | Monday through Friday |
| Hours in school day | 5.5 |
| Campuses | 2 |
| Campus type | Rural |
| Accreditations | The Joint Commission, The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), and Cognia:
|
| Website | Official website |
For nearly its entire history, the facility has faced accusations of physical, psychological, and sexual abuse of its inmates.[5] These accusations gained renewed attention in 2020 when media personality Paris Hilton released a documentary detailing the abuse she and other former residents claimed to have faced at the facility.[6]
Charter Behavioral Health Systems owned and operated PCS until it sold to UHS in 2000.[7]
Education
PCS claims to offer year round academics to all of its residents. The school claims to offer a variety of educational programs to the students including career counseling, competitive sports, special education and more. PCS is fully accredited by the Northwest Accreditation Commission.
Abuse
Since its inception, the school has been subject to a large number of individual and class-action lawsuits, particularly throughout the 1980s and 1990s. These lawsuits ranged from verbal, physical, and sexual abuse and medical negligence, to violating students' First Amendment rights and invasion of privacy, to false imprisonment and battery, to intentional infliction of emotional distress, civil conspiracy, and loss of parental consortium.[8]
In September 2020, media personality and socialite Paris Hilton premiered her YouTube Originals documentary This Is Paris, in which she attributes her chronic insomnia to PTSD developed as a result of being sent to four different "troubled teen" industry programs: CEDU School in Running Springs, California, Ascent Wilderness Program in Ruby Ridge, Idaho, Cascade School in Whitmore, California, and Provo Canyon School. After running from the first three, she spent 11 months at PCS in the late 1990s. Hilton reported that she and other students were physically and psychologically abused.[9][10] Some of the instances she details include how she and the other students were allegedly drugged with unknown medications, how she was allegedly restrained and forcibly transported to the school and how she was strip searched and placed in a seclusion room for nearly twenty-four hours. She claims PCS as "the worst of the worst" of all troubled youth facilities.[11][12][13]
In October 2020, tattoo artist and television personality Kat Von D alleged her parents sent her to the school for a three-week program, but she was ultimately there for six months. She claimed to witness students being force-fed medications, sedated, and isolated. Von D said that she left with "major PTSD and other traumas due to the unregulated, unethical and abusive protocols of this 'school'" and wrote that she couldn't "call them schools because they're not schools they're fucking lockdown facilities". Von D said that she was "spared of the sexual abuse and the physical abuse" but "definitely saw" it happen.[14]
On October 9, 2020, Hilton and a group of friends who attended PCS with her led a silent protest with hundreds of other protesters through the streets and neighborhoods of Provo, Utah to bring awareness to the facility.[15]
References
- "Provo Canyon School-provo Campus Profile (2021–22) | Provo, UT". Private School Review.
- "Explore Provo Canyon School – Provo Campus". Niche.
- "Explore Provo Canyon School – Orem Campus". Niche.
- "Provo canyon School Media Statement - Updated August 2021" (PDF).
- Miller, Jessica (September 20, 2020). "Provo Canyon School's history of abuse accusations spans decades, far beyond Paris Hilton". The Salt Lake City Tribune.
- Craft, Will (June 23, 2021). "The teen got a concussion. The school got a pass". APM Reports.
- Story, Louise (August 17, 2005). "A Business Built on the Troubles of Teenagers". The New York Times.
- "The Cases Against Provo Canyon School". HEAL Online.
- Yasharoff, Hannah. "After alleging abuse at her old school, Paris Hilton isn't backing down". USA Today. Retrieved February 16, 2021.
- Nolan, Emma (January 19, 2022). "Paris Hilton Reveals 'Living Nightmare' of Provo Canyon School in Podcast". Newsweek. Retrieved October 10, 2022.
- Leasca, Stacey (August 22, 2020). "Paris Hilton Breaks Silence Over Abuse She Claims She Experienced at Boarding School". Yahoo Life. Retrieved February 16, 2021.
- Kaufman, Amy (September 25, 2020). "Surviving abuse bonded Paris Hilton and these four women for life". Los Angeles Times.
- Dunphey, Kyle (May 12, 2022). "After championing teen treatment reform in Utah, Paris Hilton meets with Congress to push for national oversight". Deseret News. Retrieved October 10, 2022.
- Ushe, Naledi (October 6, 2020). "Kat Von D says she went to same 'tortuous' boarding school as Paris Hilton, suffered 'major PTSD'". Fox News. Retrieved October 6, 2020.
- Corinthios, Aurelie (October 9, 2020). "Paris Hilton Planning Peaceful Protest of Utah School with Survivors of Alleged Abuse". People. Retrieved October 11, 2020.