Paris Hilton is finally at “peace” after the Provo, Utah boarding school where she was allegedly abused as a teenager has shut down. “This horrific chapter of abuse, neglect, and trauma has finally come to an end,” she said in a statement Friday.
On July
17, nearly two weeks after the Utah Department of Health and Human services (DHHS) revoked the licenses for the Provo Canyon School, the school’s boys and girls campuses officially shut down, ending a years-long effort by Hilton and other survivors for accountability.
“Today, I can finally say the words I’ve been fighting to say for years: Provo Canyon School is officially shut down,” Hilton said in a statement Friday. “Over the past two weeks, the Utah Department of Health and Human Services determined that both the boys’ and girls’ campuses were not safe for the children in their care. Today means no child will ever have to endure what we did at Provo Canyon School again.”
Hilton spoke about her experiences at Provo Canyon School in the 2020 documentary, This Is Paris. She claimed her parents sent her there in the mid-Nineties, when she was a teen, because they felt her partying had gotten out of control. While there, Hilton alleged that she was beaten, placed in solitary confinement for up to 20 hours, and given unknown pills. Her parents were unaware of what she was going through, she said.
The celebrity also levied additional allegations of sex abuse against the school’s staff in a 2022 New York Times video op-ed. “Very late at night — this would be around three or four in the morning — they would take myself and other girls into this room, and they would perform medical exams,” she claimed. “This wasn’t even with a doctor. It was with a couple different staff members, where they would have us lay on the table and put their fingers inside of us. And I don’t know what they were doing, but it was definitely not a doctor.” That year, the Times reported the school was facing a lawsuit in which 49 plaintiffs alleged a former medical director had abused them sexually.
Following This Is Paris, Hilton began her campaign to have Provo Canyon School be held accountable.
“When I stood outside Provo Canyon School in 2020, they covered the windows so the children inside couldn’t see that survivors were outside fighting for them. They could block the children’s view of us, but they couldn’t stop what was coming,” Hilton said in Friday’s statement.
“Provo Canyon School underestimated me. They messed with the wrong girl, and with thousands of survivors who refused to stay silent. Today, for the first time in a very long time, I feel something I never thought I would: Peace.”
In 2021, Hilton spoke on Capitol Hill to support a bill of rights for teens in such facilities. “I will never stop fighting until every child is safe and every abusive facility is held accountable. If you are hurting children, know this: survivors are coming, we are not backing down, and we will not stop until all youth are safe,” Hilton said Friday.
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