Paris Hilton has opened up about the “traumatising” abuse she allegedly suffered at boarding school as a teenager.
The presenter and media personality was testifying at the Utah Senate Judiciary, Law Enforcement, and Criminal Justice Committee in support of new legislation which would mandate increased oversight of youth residential treatment centres.
Hilton was sent to boarding school by her parents as a teenager, staying at Provo Canyon school for 11 months. She previously discussed the allegations of abuse in the 2020 YouTube documentary This is Paris.
“For the past 20 years,” she said, “I have had a recurring nightmare where I'm kidnapped in the middle of the night by two strangers, strip-searched, and locked in a facility. I wish I could tell you that this haunting nightmare was just a dream, but it is not.
“I was verbally, mentally and physically abused on a daily basis. I was cut off from the outside world and stripped of all my human rights.”
Read more: Abuse survivors thank Paris Hilton for speaking out in new documentary
Hilton alleged that staff members at the Provo Canyon School beat her, watched her shower, made her take medication without a diagnosis, and sent her to solitary confinement without clothes.
“I didn't breathe fresh air or see the sunlight for 11 months,” she said. “There was zero privacy... Every time I would use the bathroom or take a shower, it was monitored.
“At 16 years old — as a child — I felt their piercing eyes staring at my naked body. I was just a kid and felt violated every single day.”
Hilton also claimed that children at the school had been “restrained, thrown into walls, strangled and sexually abused regularly”.
Provo Canyon School is currently under different ownership, having been sold around two decades ago. Its administration has told media that it can't comment on anything that occurred before the change of ownership, including Hilton's time there.
“I tell my story not so that anyone feels bad for me, but to shine a light on the reality of what happened then and is still happening now,” added Hilton in the testimony.
“The people who work at, run, and fund these programs should be ashamed of themselves. How can people live with themselves knowing this abuse is happening?”
Hilton called on US president Joe Biden and congressional leaders to implement federal legislation to ensure greater oversight of similar facilities.
