Paris Hilton testifies at Utah court in support of Senate Bill 127

yeah sorry and it looks like the chair was really gracious thank you senator weiler for bringing those drinks are for you but if dr wants once you can have one too he's got you covered hello everyone thank you very much thank you chairman wyler and members of the judiciary law informants and criminal justice committee for allowing me to address you my name is paris hilton i'm an institutional abuse survivor and i speak today on behalf of the hundreds of thousands of children currently in residential care facilities across the united states for the past 20 years i've had a recurring nightmare where i'm kidnapped in the middle of the night by two strangers strip searched and locked in a facility i wish i could tell you that this haunting nightmare was just a dream but it is not when i was 16 two transporters woke me up in the middle of the night with handcuffs they asked me if i wanted to go the easy way or the hard way they carried me out of my home as i screamed at the top of my lungs from my parents help i was taken to the airport and separated from everything and everyone i knew and loved i had no idea what was happening or where i was going until we landed this was my introduction to the state of utah but not the troubled teen industry i had attended three other facilities cedu and cascade in california and ascent wilderness program in idaho at cedu i was not allowed to speak to or look at my peers the staff verbally abused me calling me vulgar names that should never be said to a child cedu forced us to participate in attack therapy designed to humiliate and degrade you i did not comply with the program so i was brought to ascent in idaho at ascent i was forced to do physical labor while malnourished and sleep deprived i couldn't speak to my parents because the staff said i didn't deserve to one day a staff member strangled me and slapped me across the face in front of the other kids she did this to instill fear in everyone despite hypothermia and physical beatings from staff there was no medical care next i was sent to cascade i received no education or therapy there i feared daily for my well-being but i would not let them break my spirit provo canyon school was my final stop i was given clothes with the number on the tag i was no longer paris i was only number one two seven i was verbally mentally and physically abused on a daily basis i was cut off from the outside world and stripped of all of my human rights i was not allowed to be myself hold my own opinions or even speak without a diagnosis i was forced to consume medication that made me feel numb and exhausted i didn't breathe fresh air or see the sunlight for 11 months there was zero privacy every time i would use the bathroom or take a shower it was monitored at 16 years old as a child i felt their piercing eyes staring at my naked body i was just a kid and felt violated every single day the fourth amendment in our constitution gives us the right to privacy yet while using the bathroom and while showering staff would violate my rights this is unconstitutional degrading and terrifying although provo canyon school marketed itself as a premier treatment center as it was if it was hell itself was on earth i cried myself to sleep every single night praying i would wake up from this nightmare the staff there were evil and sadistic and seemed to enjoy their power and being able to abuse children for no reason they threw me into the isolation room called solitary confinement one day in isolation felt like a week that small room covered in scratch marks and smeared blood with no bathroom is one of the most vivid and traumatizing memories i've ever experienced in my entire life children were restrained hit thrown into walls strangled and sexually abused regularly at provo i could not report this because all communication with my family was monitored and censored and what is disgusting is the program doesn't just censor communication with family but also with the entire outside world so there was no way we could call for help recently a staff member told me how these programs would hide abuse from the office of licensing before an on-site inspection a text chat would alert the staff they were expected to clean up swiftly hide the problem kids and force the children to appear to be happy and if they didn't come in they knew what they were doing was wrong universal health services uhs you can't silence me after conducting extensive research we found out that while this facility was indeed sold after my time the practice is used and the staff employed remained and remain today the same one staff member would brag to other students that she was the one who broke paris hilton violating confidentiality is not only unethical but also a violation of hipaa this woman was employed by universal health services for 20 years she was let go this october only after my documentary premiered i tell my story not so that anyone feels bad for me but to shine a light on the reality of what happened then and is still happening now the people who work at run and fund these programs should be ashamed of themselves how can people live with themselves knowing this abuse is happening right now in utah there are thousands of children experiencing abuse that do not have access to legal counsel advocacy or their family and friends and who are counting on us to do the right thing we all of us have the opportunity today to lead by example and make a difference in saving children's lives i'm calling not only on the people in this room also elected leaders like representative scott schumer speaker pelosi vice president harris and president biden and everyone listening to my voice today to denounce child abuse utah has the highest percentage in the nation of children sent here from foster care the juvenile justice system and department of special education they deserve to have a proper treatment that is evidence-based and administered by trained staff and not leave with more issues than they came in with children are our future no child deserves to be tortured and traumatized last april a child in michigan cornelius fredericks threw a piece of bread and as a result was violently restrained by numerous staff and died how many more kids need to die for progress to be made one thing is clear youth and residential care are not protected by utah's current laws imagine it being your child who is being subjected to physical mental psychological and emotional abuse on a daily basis or your child was left in a facility 67 days longer than medically necessary even after a judge ordered his release or your child with intellectual disabilities who was forcibly injected with haldol 17 times restrained nearly 30 times in a three-month period last year this is a true story it breaks my heart that this child told her case manager that she thought she would die in the facility after suffering such a severe beating in her sleep that she required facial x-rays and couldn't eat these are just two out of millions of stories these institutions have been preying on and parents for the past years that it's generations of survivors who have had no recourse and no advocacy and have to live with that pain for their entire lives since my documentary premiered in september survivors are finally sharing what they've experienced with the world children in these facilities have been even finding ways to reach out to breaking code silence for help despite being dismissed discouraged and threatened into silence we must empower these children we must listen and we must respond accordingly on october 9 2020 i organized the first survivor gathering in provo utah which brought together survivors and allies from all 50 states to stand in solidarity together this was one of the most empowering days of my life i finally felt less alone since then i've dedicated my platform and my purpose to ensuring that no more children suffer at the hands of these systematically abusive institutions and i will not stop fighting until this change happened point honest top talking about something so personal was and is still terrifying but i cannot go to sleep at night knowing that there are children that are enduring the same abuse that i and so many others went through and neither should you i am proof that money doesn't protect against abuse just because a program charges high tuition or has a prestigious name doesn't mean it's high quality the state of utah must monitor the companies that are taking exorbitant amounts of money from desperate people and taxpayers people are profiting off the abuse of children this is not right it's so wrong children are our future and for this to be allowed is despicable utah is supposedly built on family values but the neglect by this state to address this pressing issue has brought us here today it is your duty as an elected official to protect the public today i urge you to support senate bill 127 enacting this bill into law is the first step to protect our children thank you for your time consideration and for giving me the opportunity to use my voice i had been silent for far too long and i don't know if my nightmares will ever go away but i do know that there are hundreds of thousands of kids going through this right now and maybe if i stop their nightmares it will stop mine too thank you thank you miss hilton

Channel: Paris Hilton Site

Views: 9,959

Rating: 4.9660058 out of 5

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Id: 1xvG2Kp5lxE

Length: 12min 24sec (744 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 12 2021