Paris Hilton testifies about ‘nightmare’ abuse at Utah boarding school in support of bill to regulate teen centers
Paris Hilton still gets flashbacks to the 11 months she spent at a Utah boarding school that she was sent to at age 16 in the middle of the night to reform her party girl ways.
“For the past 20 years, 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,” the 39-year-old socialite said Monday. “I wish I could tell you that this haunting nightmare was just a dream, but it is not.”
Hilton spent more than an hour testifying in front of the Utah Senate Judiciary, Law Enforcement, and Criminal Justice Committee in support of a bill that would require more government oversight of youth residential treatment centers.
Among the centers is Provo Canyon School, where Hilton spent almost a year and claims she was “verbally, mentally and physically abused on a daily basis.”
“From the moment I woke up until I went to bed, it was all day screaming in my face, yelling at me, continuous torture,” she testified Monday.
“The staff would say terrible things. 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 also claimed she was fed medication without a proper diagnosis, leaving her “numb and exhausted,” and that all communication with the outside world, including her family, was “monitored and censored.”
“There was zero privacy — every time I would use the bathroom or take a shower — it was monitored,” she said. “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.”
The bill, sponsored by Sen. Mike McKell (R-Spanish Fork), would require more government oversight, mandate that the treatment centers document any use of physical restraints and involuntary confinement, and ban chemical sedation and mechanical restraints unless specifically authorized.
The committee voted unanimously to endorse it and forward it on to the full Senate for a vote.
Provo Canyon, which opened in 1971, has defended itself by saying that it was sold to its current owners in 2000.
“We therefore cannot comment on the operations or patient experience prior to this time,” the school previously said in a statement.
Hilton, who documented her abuse in “This Is Paris,” claimed little has changed since the sale.
“I tell my story not so that anyone feels bad for me,” she testified. “But to shine a light on the reality of what happened then, and is still happening now.”
