Testifying about the physical and mental abuse he suffered in boarding schools as a teenager, he emphasized the need to strengthen child welfare protection.
According to foreign media such as the Guardian and the New York Times, Paris Hilton attended a hearing on “Enhancing Child Protection and Welfare” organized by the U.S. House Tax and Trade Committee on the 26th (local time) and shared her terrible experience at boarding school as a teenager.
“At first, I thought it would just be a normal boarding school, but the boarding school’s programs promised healing, growth and support, but for two years they didn’t even allow me to speak, move freely or look out the window,” Hilton said
“The facility staff were forced to take drugs and sexually abused them,” he said, “and they were violently arrested, taken to the hallway, naked and held in solitary confinement.”
“All communications with the outside world were controlled and there was always someone with me when I was on the phone with my parents,” Hilton said, “so I couldn’t tell you what was going on.”
Paris Hilton said she still suffers from trauma as a result of the abuse she suffered at boarding school. Her parents also said they were “completely deceived” by her treatment.
Hilton expressed support for bipartisan consensus efforts to reauthorize Section 4B of the Social Security Act (Child Welfare Act), which expired in 2021, arguing that “the situation in boarding schools or youth shelters in the United States has not changed much from 27 years ago.”
He also urged Congress to pass an institutional child abuse law to strengthen oversight of residential youth programs, pointing to lax oversight by authorities, saying “the industry, which is worth $23 billion a year, sees these children only for money and has no oversight of the facilities.”
“As a mother, these stories break my heart. The treatment they had to endure was a crime,” said Paris Hilton, a mother of two. “They deserve to be raised in a safe environment.”
“I will be a voice for voiceless children,” he said. “I will not stop until American teenagers are safe.”
The school Hilton attended was sold in 2000, and the foundation does not comment on pre-purchases.
JULIE KIM
US ASIA JOURNAL
