- Paris Hilton spoke supporting parent lawsuits against Provo Canyon School.
- Families allege mistreatment including abuse and neglect, leading to severe injuries.
- Utah lawmakers and advocates call for improved oversight of youth treatment facilities.
PROVO — Celebrity advocate Paris Hilton joined lawyers at a news conference Monday as two families announced they are suing Provo Canyon School, alleging negligence involving their children who were under the care of the youth psychiatric residential treatment facility.
Hilton was sent to the facility when she was 17, and has previously disclosed that she had experienced multiple forms of mistreatment and abuse.
"I was forced into solitary confinement, physically restrained and sexually abused — all in the name of treatment," Hilton said, reading her prepared remarks to reporters. "It breaks my heart to know that children are still inside that same facility, feeling that same fear that I know too well."
Attorneys shared details of the pending lawsuits, which involved cases from the past year.
In one, documents allege that a 13-year-old boy was "slammed onto his head" by another resident at the facility after "tensions between the two youths were permitted to escalate in the presence of staff," leaving the child with a fractured jaw and intracranial bleeding.
"No one bothered to call the ambulance, no one bothered to tell me where he was at," said Aleah Corona, the boy's mother. "No one called the police, as if my son's life was of absolutely no value to them."
The lawsuit documents state workers attempted to handle the matter themselves before taking the teen to the hospital in a private vehicle.
In a separate matter in which lawyers filed a notice of intent, documents explained that a girl was only given ibuprofen after days of vomiting and severe pain.
"The other family is here because a teenage girl in their facility became critically ill," said attorney Alan Mortensen of the firm Mortensen & Milne. "They let her throw up, they let her vomit, they let her complain for two weeks — never did anything."
Mortensen said the girl went into kidney failure and will require dialysis 3 times per week for the rest of her life.
KSL attempted to reach Provo Canyon School and parent company Universal Health Services Monday afternoon for a response and had yet to receive a statement by Tuesday morning.
Hilton, now an advocate who founded 11:11 Media Impact, first outlined her experience at Provo Canyon School in the 2020 documentary, "This is Paris."
"When I spoke out, Provo Canyon said my experience happened under prior ownership and that they were committed to the safety of their patients and staff under their leadership, but records show otherwise and children are still paying the price," Hilton said Monday. "After hearing these families' stories, we have to act."
Meg Applegate, a survivor of the "troubled teen" industry and founder of Unsilenced, said the nonprofit organization had identified similar experiences over more than 50 years of Provo Canyon School's operation across multiple corporate owners and was in the process of its own investigation and was currently asking past residents and employees to complete a "survivor survey."
Mortensen said attorneys may not have learned about the case involving Corona's son had it not been for Sen. Jen Plumb, D-Salt Lake City, who called police about the matter as she was working as an emergency room doctor.
"We have to do better," Plumb said during Monday's news conference. "I know business matters in this state. I know licensing is important in this state, but if you do things like what happened to that kid, I'm sorry, you don't deserve a license. You don't deserve to have children in your care, and I'm not going to be soft and kind about it."
Sen. Mike McKell, R-Spanish Fork, said Utah lawmakers have passed measures in recent years to boost oversight and reporting standards and to enhance the state's ability to investigate complaints.
"Many providers are doing exactly what they should be doing, but after five years, we have to be honest — some programs still do not prioritize the safety and well-being of children," McKell said. "Five years after landmark reforms, it's unacceptable that we continue to see serious concerns emerge from the same facilities in the State of Utah."
