On Monday, Paris Hilton appeared in court and testified against school named Provo Canyon as she has accused its staff members of inflicting psychological, physical and emotional abuse on her while she was studying there.
The 39-year-old told the court, “My name is Paris Hilton, I am 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 have 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,” she continued.
“I was verbally, mentally and physically abused on a daily basis. I was cut off from the outside world and stripped of all my human rights. 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, I felt their piercing eyes staring at my naked body. I was just a kid and felt violated every single day,” she added.
Hilton questioned “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. The people who work at, run, and fund these programmes should be ashamed. How can people live with themselves knowing this abuse is happening?”
The starlet further said, “Talking about something so personal is still terrifying. I cannot go to sleep knowing that there are children that are enduring the same abuse that I and so many others went through. Neither should you. I am proof that money doesn't protect against abuse."
Hilton recalled, “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. The staff would say terrible things. They were constantly making me feel bad about myself. I think it was their goal to break us down. And they were physically abusive, hitting and strangling us. They wanted to instill fear in the kids so we'd be too scared to disobey them."
