Paris Hilton comes back to Utah to support families suing teen treatment center
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Annie Knox, Utah News Dispatch
PROVO, Utah (Utah News Dispatch) — Paris Hilton returned to Utah Monday, showing her support for parents suing the residential teen treatment center where she said she was abused and isolated as a teenager.
The heiress and reality TV star was a driving force behind new laws imposing stricter regulations on the industry in the last five years and has continued calling for the Provo Canyon School to be shut down. On Monday, she said recent reports of violence and poor medical care show it has not improved.
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“This is not a facility with problems,” Hilton said at a news conference in Provo. “This is a facility that is the problem.”
Parent Aleah Corona sued the center Monday, alleging it allowed another student to commit escalating violence against her 13-year-old son as a form of punishing him. On May 14, he “was slammed onto his head” by the other student, breaking his jaw and causing a brain bleed, her lawsuit states. But instead of calling 911, she said employees tried to manage his injuries on their own before bringing him to a hospital.
The school did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Utah News Dispatch. But a Provo Canyon School Officer told other Utah news outlets including KTVX that “Provo Canyon School maintains comprehensive safety procedures and ongoing monitoring practices designed to protect and support our residents.”
State licensors took emergency action against the school after the incident last month, placing it under closer monitoring for 30 days and requiring more training, The Salt Lake Tribune reported. Hilton and others at the news conference urged the state to pull the facility’s license altogether before the end of the 30-day period, during which the school was barred from admitting new residents.
Corona said her son has mental health challenges and she was anxious to find a place that could help him.
“Instead, I watched my son come home with injuries no child should ever suffer,” she said.
A second lawsuit filed Monday accuses the facility of medical malpractice in the case of another student, alleging she was ill in June 2025 but the school allowed her condition to deteriorate to the point of kidney failure and she now requires dialysis three times a week.
“Today, I’m grateful to stand beside two mothers whose children made it out barely alive,” Hilton said. “But no mother should have to beg for people to believe her child.” She spoke in a serious, urgent tone at the news conference and used a handheld fan and umbrella to stay cool in under the blistering sun.
Hilton has testified in support of past legislation in Utah to limit the use of restraint at the facilities and boost the budget for regulators to inspect and monitor them, among other steps toward greater oversight.
The sponsor of those bills, Sen. Mike McKell, R-Spanish Fork, told reporters that some Utah programs have long operated under a model where they’d take any child whose family or insurance could cover the cost.
“The real question should never be whether the provider is willing to take a child,” McKell said. “The question should be whether the provider is qualified to help that child.”
McKell didn’t join in the call for the immediate closure of the facility, saying after the news conference that he’s waiting to see findings from ongoing reviews compiled by the state and the nonprofit Disability Law Center. But if the reports don’t show improvement, he said the facility should not keep its license.