Utah licensers will be keeping a close watch on Provo Canyon School’s Springville campus after inspectors recently viewed video footage from December which showed that a staffer “struck” a teenager who was being physically restrained.
This was the seventh time in a two-year period that Utah’s Office of Licensing has found that the teen treatment program did not keep young people free from harm or acts of violence, according to a Notice Of Agency Action issued last week. That includes an instance last November of a staffer restraining a young person unnecessarily, according to state inspection reports, and another incident in September when a staffer “acted in a way where clients were harmed.”
Provo Canyon School is now required to do in-person training with its staff, according to the notice, and pay for state licensers to inspect the Springville program more often. It is also required to notify parents and state agencies who have placed children in the program about the state’s punishment and findings, as well as post the notice on its website.
If it does not comply with these conditions, or if licensers continue to find problems, Provo Canyon School could lose its license for its Springville location. Its license allows it to cater to 120 residents at a time, and according to an inspection report from last November, it then had 117 beds filled. Tim Marshall, the CEO of Provo Canyon School, said the facility houses both teenage boys and girls with “serious mental health disorders who are referred due to their high level of acuity and preexisting unsafe behaviors.”
There is a second Provo Canyon School location in Provo, which is not affected by the state notice.
Both programs are owned by Universal Health Services. Marshall said Thursday it is “working earnestly to address the concerns raised” by licensers.
“We treat every survey finding from the State as an opportunity for continuous quality improvement,” he wrote in an email, “and we remain confident that demonstration of full compliance will be observed by the State.”
Provo Canyon School is one of Utah’s oldest programs for so-called “troubled teens” — and has been controversial since its beginnings for its treatment of young people. Just a few years after it opened in the 1970s as a boys school, the ACLU of Utah sued it over its practice of using lie detector tests on boys and pulling students’ hair to get them under control, called a “hair dance.”
The school won its lawsuit, but allegations of abusive tactics have continued in the years since. Celebrity Paris Hilton, who went to Provo Canyon School in the 1990s, is among its most high-profile former residents who allege abuse. She has said that she was abused in the program, overmedicated and was sexually assaulted when she was given pelvic exams that had no clear medical purpose.
(Eric Lee | The New York Times) Paris Hilton, who says she was abused at Provo Canyon School, has advocated for more oversight of teen treatment programs. She testified during a House committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington last June.
UHS bought Provo Canyon School in 2000; it has said it cannot comment on student experiences prior to that time.
“We do not condone or promote any form of abuse,” it said in a statement released last January. “Any and all alleged/suspected abuse is reported immediately to our state regulatory authorities, law enforcement and Child Protective Services, as required. We are committed to providing high-quality care to youth with special, and often complex, emotional, behavioral and psychiatric needs.”
