[ad_1]
Paris Hilton opens up about her experience with past abuse as she continues to advocate for legislation that better protects children from institutional abuse.
On Wednesday, the actor, singer, DJ and model said she would “be the voice for children whose voices cannot be heard” and “will not stop until America’s youth are safe,” urging Congress to act to protect the welfare of children while testifying at a House committee hearing on Wednesday.
Appearing before the House Ways and Means Committee at a hearing focused on foster care and the reauthorization of Title IV-B of the Social Security Act — which provides resources to states to promote child welfare — Hilton said that “families are need resources and support so they don’t need to go into the child protection system in the first place.”
Hilton is an outspoken advocate for child welfare issues and has previously said she experienced physical and emotional abuse at a boarding school for troubled teens in her 2020 documentary This Is Paris and her 2023 memoir “Paris: The Memoirs”.
She said she still suffers from PTSD from her time at the institution.
She testified about the experience Wednesday, telling the commission that when she was 16 years old, “I was pulled from my bed in the middle of the night and transported across state lines to the first of four youth treatment facilities.”
“I was force-fed medication and sexually abused by staff. I was forcibly restrained and dragged through the corridors, stripped naked and thrown into solitary confinement. My parents were completely deceived – lied to and manipulated by this for-profit industry about the inhumane treatment I was experiencing,” she said.
“Can you just imagine what it’s like for youth who are housed by the state and don’t have people checking in on them on a regular basis?”
“As a mother, these stories break my heart,” Hilton, now a mother of two, also said at the hearing.
Hilton has visited Washington to advocate for child safety in the past, including a visit in 2022 where, according to a White House official, she met with White House policy staff and other survivors to discuss “issues related to protecting America’s institutionalized youth.”
“What I experienced in those places, I will never forget,” Hilton told CNN’s Briana Keillor during a 2022 interview.
“It affected me and will affect me for the rest of my life and that’s why I’m fighting for change so that no child suffers in the name of treatment.”
[ad_2]
