Paris Hilton, the American socialite and media figure, has told a US congressional panel looking into strengthening child welfare protections that she was “force-fed medications and sexually abused by staff” while she was institutionalised as a teenager.
Hilton, an outspoken advocate for better protections for children in youth facilities, told a House of Representatives’ committee on Wednesday that she had been “violently restrained and dragged down hallways, stripped naked and thrown into solitary confinement”.
The 43-year-old has previously described how she was subjected to “a parent-approved kidnapping” at four different youth facilities as her parents searched for solutions to her rebellious behaviour and “fell for the misleading marketing of the troubled teen industry”.
She has characterised the “tough love” teen course-correction business as a $50 billion (€46.7 billion) industry that includes therapeutic boarding schools, military-style boot camps, juvenile justice facilities and behaviour-modification programmes.
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She posted on Instagram about her address, saying: “In my Liam Neeson era. From the California capitol in April to DC today, I will continue to advocate until every child is safe, and shine a bright light on these abuses.”
On Wednesday, the reality TV star said she found her institutional experience “isolating and traumatic” and that she had been prevented from alerting her parents to what was happening because phone calls were monitored.
“It’s really difficult to tell anyone in the outside world. A lot of these kids are not believed because these places tell the parents they’re being lied to and manipulated because they want to go home,” Hilton told the panel.
Hilton has also called on lawmakers to pass the Stop Institutional Child Abuse Act, designed to strengthen oversight of residential youth programmes; supports the reauthorisation of Title IV-B of the social security act; and is an advocate for a “Bill of Rights” for children in youth facilities.
The Provo Canyon school, one of the institutions Hilton attended, previously responded to Hilton’s accusations saying it was under different management and “therefore cannot comment on the operations or student experience prior to that time”.
“What we can say is that the school provides a structured environment, teaching life skills, providing behavioural health therapy, and continuing education for youth who come to us with pre-existing and complex emotional, behavioural and psychiatric needs,” the school said.
At the hearings, Hilton said “these programmes promised healing, growth and support, but instead, did not allow me to speak, move freely or even look out a window for two years”, and said her parents had been “completely deceived” about the therapeutic treatment she was receiving. – Guardian/PA