Paris Hilton calls on Biden to take account for troubled teen industry
Paris Hilton has shared her own shocking experiences while calling on US President Joe Biden and Congress to do something about the “troubled teen industry”.
The former reality TV star previously revealed she had faced mental and physical abuse as a teenager in youth facilities.
Appearing outside Capitol Hill, Hilton said: “For 20 years I couldn’t sleep at night as memories of physical violence, the feeling of loneliness, the loss of peers rushed through my mind when I shut my eyes.
“This was not just insomnia. It was trauma.”
Hilton appeared on October 20 alongside other teen survivors to announce the Accountability for Congregate Care Act. They were joined by lawmakers representative Ro Khanna and Senator Jeff Merkley, who are co-sponsors of the legislation.
The 40-year-old star called on Biden to support the legislation, which would establish a bill of rights for children in youth facilities and act as oversight for the “troubled teens industry”.
“Ensuring children are safe from institutional abuse isn’t a Republican or Democratic issue,” she said.
“It’s a basic human rights issue that requires immediate attention.”
In her speech, Hilton also shared her experiences and the trauma she endured as a teenager.
“One night when I was 16 years old, I woke up to two large men in my bedroom asking if I wanted to go the easy way or the hard way,” she said.
“Thinking I was being kidnapped, I screamed for my parents. As I was being physically dragged out of my house, I saw them crying in the hallway. They didn’t come to my rescue that night.
“This was my introduction to the troubled teen industry.
“My parents were promised that tough love would fix me and that sending me across the country was the only way.”
Hilton went on to share details about her treatment at the facility she was taken to.
“I was strangled, slapped across the face, watched in the shower by male staff, called vulgar names, forced to take medication without a diagnosis, not given a proper education, thrown into solitary confinement in a room covered in scratch marks and smeared in blood,” she said.
“I was forced to stay indoors for 11 months straight - no sunlight, no fresh air.”
Image: Getty Images
“I wish I could tell you what I experienced or witnessed was unique or even rare, but sadly,it’s not,” she continued.
“Every day in America, children in congregate care settings are being physically, emotionally and sexually abused.”
In the past, Hilton has also called on Biden to support another bill which would require youth residential treatment centres to be under additional government oversight and document when they use restraints.
Testifying at a February state Senate committee hearing in favour of the bill, Hilton told the committee that talking about such a personal subject “was and is still terrifying”.
“But I cannot go to sleep at night knowing that there are children that are experiencing the same abuse that I and so many others went through, and neither should you.”
Image: Getty Images