Paris Hilton testified on Capitol Hill about her experiences in youth residential facilities, stating that she was “force-fed medications and sexually abused.”
On Wednesday, the 43-year-old socialite testified before the House Ways and Means Committee as an advocate for modernizing Child Welfare programs as she spoke about her horrific experience in four different youth facilities, Axios reported.
“When I was 16 years old, I was ripped from my bed in the middle of night and transported across state lines to the first of four residential facilities,” Hilton testified, USA noted.
“These programs promised healing, growth, and support, but instead, did not allow me to speak, move freely, or even look out a window for two years,” she added.
“I was force-fed medications and sexually abused by the staff,” Hilton continued. “I was violently restrained and dragged down hallways, stripped naked, and thrown into solitary confinement.”
Hilton said her parents, Hilton & Hyland co-founder Rick Hilton and “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills“ star Kathy Hilton, were “completely deceived, lied to, and manipulated by this for-profit industry about the inhumane treatment I was experiencing.”
“So, can you only imagine the experience for youth who were placed by the state and don’t have people regularly checking in on them?” Hilton asked.
“This $23 billion-a-year industry sees this population as dollar signs and operates without meaningful oversight,” she added. “What is more important? Protecting business profits or protecting foster youth lives?”Hilton added, “As a mom, these stories break my heart,” and said that the reason she testified was “to be a voice for the children whose voices can’t be heard.”In a USA Today op-ed in 2022, Hilton wrote about the horrible things she said happened to her when she was sent to Provo Canyon School where she claimed she was forced in the middle of the night to have numerous “sham” gynecological exams.
“I was repeatedly awakened by staff shining a bright flashlight in my face, pulled out of bed and told to be quiet as I was ushered down my dorm’s hallway to an ‘exam room,’” Hilton wrote. “Sleep-deprived and heavily medicated, I didn’t understand what was happening.”
“I was forced to lie on a padded table, spread my legs and submit to gynecological exams,” she added. “I remember crying while they held me down. I kept saying, ‘No!’ and asking, ‘Why?’ They just said, ‘Shut up. Be quiet. Stop struggling or you’ll go to Obs.’”
“Obs – short for observation – was solitary confinement in a tiny cinderblock room with nothing but a drain and a roll of toilet paper,” Hilton continued. “The room was freezing cold, and I was almost naked. I paced until I couldn’t stand up anymore. Then I huddled on the floor and rocked back and forth, forcing myself to think about the life I would create for myself after I got out.”
Source: Daily Wire
