Paris Hilton: “I Was Abused, Beaten and Mistreated in the School That Was Supposed to Help Me”

She was given drugs “forcibly” and was “sexually abused by staff”. Paris Hilton gave her testimony to the commission Ways and means of the American Chamber, which also deals with foster care and adoptions. The heiress told her story about her traumatic experience, in adolescence, at Provo Canyon Schoola school for “troubled” kids, where her parents sent her when they noticed she was skipping school and that her grades were slipping. That structure promised “growth and support”but since the 1980s she has been accused of verbal and physical violence of all kinds.

He was 16 years old then. «I was brutally immobilized, stripped naked and placed in solitary confinement. I wasn’t allowed to speak, move freely or even look out the window for two years,” explained Paris Hilton, who accused the school of being more interested in financial returns than in protecting and caring for the vulnerable children it is supposed to help. She had already told her story in a book, in a documentary (This is Parisin September 2020) and in some interviews.

She reported that she was taken from her bed in the middle of the night, by strangers. Her parents had enrolled her in Provo Canyon School with the best intentions: “They had no idea” what the facility really was and were “continually deceived and manipulated by the staff.” And again: «They just thought it would be a normal boarding school. When I got there, there was no therapy scheduled. We would only have been constantly discouraged, mistreated and scolded.”

Every relationship with the outside world was controlled and mediated, and there was always someone listening to her when she spoke on the phone with her parents. «So, if I had said even one negative thing about the facility, they would have immediately hung up the phone and I would have been punished and beaten or put in solitary confinement.”

There Provo Canyon Schoolin the past, had responded to the accusations by stating that, before 2000, the structure was in the hands of a different owner: «Therefore we cannot comment on the operations or the experience of the students before that moment». Other former students also gave similar accounts to those of Paris Hilton, as reported on Salt Lake Tribune.

That “inhuman” treatment, the heiress says, has affected her entire life. For this reason, the heiress is urging US legislators to pass a bill called Stop Institutional Child Abuse Act. _According to this rule, these «troubled teen industry“, schools and centers that deal with adolescents with various types of problems, would be managed at the federal level, so that abuse reporting systems can be more transparent. A sort of national guide would also be drawn up on best practices in the centres, so that the different needs of children can be recognized and respected.

Also a new report from Department of Health and Human Services found that many U.S. territories do not adequately track how children are treated in these facilities, nor are cases of abuse recorded.