Sexual abuse, forced admission with medication

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Appearing before a congressional committee to urge lawmakers to better protect child welfare, Paris Hilton spoke about her experience in an institution as a teenager. “These programs promised healing, growth and support, but instead I was not allowed to speak, move freely or even look out the window for two years,” she testified Wednesday. “I was force-fed medication and sexually abused by staff. I was forcibly restrained and dragged through the hallways, stripped naked and put in solitary confinement.” Hilton said she was “ripped” from her bed at age 16 and placed in the first of four institutions. Hilton has previously claimed she was emotionally, verbally and physically abused by staff at Provo Canyon School, a boarding school and mental health treatment center in Utah, where she once spent 11 months. (Provo said it does not tolerate any form of abuse, pointing out that ownership changed in 2000, after she left the school.)

Hilton has been a vocal critic of such facilities, suggesting that they are part of an industry that cares more about profit than the so-called troubled youth they are supposed to help. She told Congress that her parents, Rick and Kathy Hilton, were “deceived” and “manipulated” about the “inhumane treatment” she allegedly faced, and expressed concern that foster and adopted children who do not have regular human care are in an even worse situation. Finally, Hilton called on lawmakers to pass legislation (including the now-expired Title IV-B of the Social Security Act and the proposed Stop Institutional Child Abuse Act) to do more to prevent children from being placed in these facilities in the first place. Toward the end of her testimony, she addressed children still in the system directly. “I see you, I believe you, I know what you’re going through, and I’m not going to give up on you,” she said. “You matter, and your future matters, and you deserve every opportunity to be safe and supported.”