Paris Hilton: I was ‘held down’ and sexually abused at Utah school
Paris Hilton claimed staff members at Utah’s Provo Canyon School would forcefully “perform cervical exams” on her and other female students.
“Very late at night, this would be around like 3 or 4 in the
morning, they would take myself and other girls into this room and they would
perform medical exams,” Hilton, 41, claimed in a New York Times article
published Tuesday.
She further alleged that it “wasn’t even with a doctor” but
rather “it was a couple of different staff members who would have us lay on the
table and put their fingers inside of us.”
As her voice quavered during the video interview, the
socialite continued, “And I don’t know what they were doing, but it was
definitely not a doctor. And it was really scary, and it’s something that I
really had blocked out for many years.”
She continued, “But it’s coming back all the time now, and I
think about it. And now, looking back as an adult, that was definitely sexual
abuse.”
Reps for Provo Canyon did not immediately respond for
comment.
The “Simple Life” star also detailed her horrifying
experience on Twitter, writing that she was “forced to lie on a padded
table,” spread her legs and submit to a “cervical exam.”
“I cried while they held me down & said, ‘No!’ They just
said, ‘Shut up. Be quiet. Stop struggling or you’ll go to Obs,'” Hilton wrote,
adding, “It’s important to open up about these painful moments so I can heal
& help put an end to this abuse.”
Hilton has continuously
spoken out about her time at the controversial boarding school in the
past, publicly advocating for the reform of the type of facilities that Hilton
attended.
When she was 16 years old, Rick and Kathy Hilton sent their
oldest daughter to Provo Canyon School in Utah due to her rebellious nature.
She was there for 11 months before being brought back home.
In 2020, the “Stars Are Blind” artist released the
documentary “This Is Paris,” painting a larger picture of her troubled youth
and traumatic experience at the boarding school.
“I knew it was going to be worse than anywhere else,” Paris
said of the Utah school, adding, “It was supposed to be a school, but [classes]
were not the focus at all. From the moment I woke up until I went to bed, it
was all day screaming in my face, yelling at me, continuous torture.”
Paris spoke of her struggles at the school alongside three
of her former classmates who corroborated the heiress’s claims of abuse. The
now-successful businesswoman shared in the documentary that the attendees were
force-fed medication, held down by restraints as punishment and sometimes
tossed into solitary confinement for as long as “20 hours a day.”
“I was having panic attacks and crying every single day,”
she added. “I was just so miserable. I felt like a prisoner and I hated life.”
The seemingly hellish experience Paris had at the school
ended when she turned 18 in 1999, and she headed back to New York, refusing to
speak of her experience until recent years.
“I was so grateful to be out of there, I didn’t even want to
bring it up again. It was just something I was ashamed of and I didn’t want to
speak of it.”
The “House of Wax” actress teamed up with Unsilenced.org and
Breaking Code Silence in May to urge federal action against these facilities,
speaking alongside 200 other survivors in Washington, DC.
Paris has worked with lawmakers to push through legislation,
including the “Troubled Teen” Industry Law — SB127 — that was signed into law
in 2021. The bill was intended to put more government oversight on Utah’s youth
residential treatment centers.
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