Paris Hilton Returns to Utah School Where She Says She Was Abused as a Teen With Middle Fingers Raised

Paris Hilton, who has previously opened up about being physically, mentally and sexually abused as a teenager at Provo Canyon School, returned to the boarding school on Monday, June 15.

“I dreamed of becoming strong enough, successful enough and powerful enough to come back and be the hero that I needed when I was a little girl locked inside,” said the Simple Life alum, 45, per the Associated Press.

“Today is that day, and I am not backing down,” she added.

According to the AP, the Confessions of an Heiress author — who was enrolled at the Springville school for 11 months when she was 17 — returned to Provo Canyon in support of two families who filed lawsuits that same day claiming that their children were also mistreated there.

The school has changed ownership since Hilton was there, so the administration said, per the AP, that it can’t comment on her time there.

Still, the school said in a statement, “At Provo Canyon School, the safety, dignity, and well-being of those entrusted to our care are our highest priorities.”

Hilton reportedly walked up to the campus with her middle fingers raised and told the AP that she refused to be intimidated.

“These places really just prey on parents who are just looking for help for their children,” Hilton said. “I wasn’t a bad kid, I was just sneaking out at night, getting bad grades. I had ADHD, so I wasn’t doing well in school, but this was definitely not the place that I should’ve been sent. My parents had no idea.”

In 2020, Hilton said in an interview with People, “I buried my truth for so long.”

“It was supposed to be a school, but [classes] were not the focus at all,” Hilton told the publication of her time at the school. “From the moment I woke up until I went to bed, it was all day screaming in my face, yelling at me, continuous torture.”

“The staff would say terrible things,” she claimed. “They were constantly making me feel bad about myself and bully me. I think it was their goal to break us down. And they were physically abusive, hitting and strangling us. They wanted to instill fear in the kids so we’d be too scared to disobey them.”

Hilton talked about her experience at the school in her 2020 YouTube Originals documentary, This Is Paris.