The TV star, Paris Hilton, and the reality show, Paris Hilton, on Monday described to the legislators in Utah the ‘daily’ abuse that she said was endured in a facility for troubled youths in the nineties, while she urged legislators to to pass a bill that would protect teens today from going through what she does. experience.
‘I have been verbally, mentally and physically abused daily. I was cut off from the outside world and stripped of all my human rights, ”Hilton told the Utah Senate Judiciary, Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee about her interactions with employees at Provo Canyon School, the residential center where she nearly spent time. . a year as a teenager.
‘I had to take emergency medication that made me feel numb and exhausted. I did not breathe fresh air or see the sunlight for 11 months. There was no privacy. “Every time I use the bathroom or shower, it’s watched, ‘she said.’ At age 16 – as a child – I feel their piercing eyes stare at my naked body. I was just a kid and felt violated every day. ‘
Hilton’s emotional testimony during the legislative hearing was one of three heard by the Utah committee in support of a bill sponsored by Republican Senator Michael McKell, which calls for more institutions to be regulated that are part of the so-called fraud-teen industry.
‘I can not go to bed at night because I know that there are children who endure the same abuse that I and so many other people went through. You should not either. I’m a proof that money is not protected from abuse, ‘said the hotel heir.
McKell’s bill was unanimously approved by the committee meeting and must now go to the full state Senate for consideration before finally going to the governor’s desk for his approval.
If signed into law, treatment facilities would require documenting cases of physical restraint and involuntary confinement and banning chemical sedation and mechanical restraints, NBC affiliate KSL-TV in Salt Lake City reported.
Hilton, 39, said it was ‘scary’ to talk about something so personal, but said she felt compelled to speak out about children who are still in these facilities.
“For the past twenty years, I have had a recurring nightmare where I have been kidnapped by two strangers in the middle of the night, stripped and locked in a facility,” she said, referring to the night she was taken. Provo Canyon. “I wish I could tell you that this ghostly nightmare was just a dream, but it’s not.”
“I do not know if my nightmares will ever go away, but I know there are hundreds of thousands of children going through this, and if I stop their nightmares, it will help me stop mine,” she said.
One of her worst memories, she told lawmakers, was that staff at Provo Canyon locked her up in solitary confinement.
“That little room covered with scratch marks and smeared blood without a bathroom is one of the most vivid and traumatic memories I’ve ever experienced in my entire life,” Hilton said.
Hilton was sent in front of her Provo Canyon by her parents to several other residential facilities when she rebelled as a teenager under their strict parenting. She discussed her time at the Institutions for the first time in her YouTube documentary, “This Is Paris,” which premiered in September.
Since then, the entrepreneur has become an activist for teens who are still in such facilities. While in Provo Canyon, she could not report the abuse because all communication with her family and the outside world was monitored.
“I kept quiet for far too long,” she said Monday.
Provo Canyon did not immediately respond to several requests for comment from NBC News in response to Hilton’s testimony.
However, the school had earlier issued statements in response to its allegations, pointing out that because we sold the school in 2000 – after Hilton’s time – to its current ownership, ‘we can therefore not comment on the surgeries or patient experience before. not the time. ‘
“What we can say is that the school provides a structured environment that teaches life skills, provides behavioral health therapy and provides continuing education to youth who already have existing and complex emotional, behavioral and psychiatric needs,” Provo Canyon said in part in a statement issued in October when Hilton organized a gathering of fellow survivors of the teenage industry and asked that Provo Canyon be closed.
“While we acknowledge that there have been individuals over the years who feel that they have not been helped by the program, we are delighted with the many stories that former residents tell about how their stay was a pivot to improve them – and in save many cases – live. ”
In a statement, McKell said he is grateful to survivors like Hilton who ‘use their platform and voice to draw attention to an industry in dire need of reform. As a state, we will take the necessary steps to increase transparency and security to prevent further abuse. ”
The former star of “The Simple Life” said she plans to tackle her fight for more regulations on the teen industry nationwide.
“I’m not telling my story so that someone feels bad for me,” Hilton said Monday, “but to shed some light on the reality of what happened then, and is still happening.”
Kurt Chirbas contributed.