Paris Hilton Advocates for Teens Removed from Jamaican Youth Program After Her Own Boarding School Experience

Hilton, who has fought for systemic change regarding troubled teen programs around the globe, traveled to Jamaica to lend her support

Paris Hilton is lending her voice to an issue close to her heart.

The entrepreneur mom, 43, traveled to Treasure Beach, Jamaica, on April 3 for a press conference addressing the seven American boys who have been held in the custody of the Jamaican Child Protection and Family Services Agency.

The boys, currently living in Jamaican group homes, were removed from Atlantis Leadership Academy, a "troubled teen" program, after the program was found to be mistreating students in a way "amounting to abuse," per NBC News.

Hilton — who has been deeply focused on her advocacy against institutional child abuse and neglect in youth residential programs — appeared alongside children's rights attorney Dawn J. Post, survivor Chelsea Maldonado, and attorney Michael McFarland to call for change.

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Related: The Biggest Revelations from Paris Hilton's New Memoir, Including How Demi Lovato Helped Her Overcome Trauma

"My visit here is a show of support for the Jamaican action that has been taken and for encouraging the U.S. government at all levels to take this issue seriously and to act with urgency," Hilton said at the press conference.

"While we wait for the government to take action, survivors will continue to uncover this broken system and expose those who are putting profits over the well-being of our most vulnerable youth. We will protect the powerless ourselves."

Hilton expressed her gratitude "to local authorities for intervening to save American children." In addition to speaking out Hilton and her team are working closely with lawyers and advocates to offer support for the seven boys.

In her 2023 book Paris: The Memoir, Hilton talked about her traumatic time in a CEDU boarding school programs and even alleged she experienced sexual abuse the Provo Canyon School in Utah. In Paris, she details numerous attempts to escape the multiple "emotional-growth boarding schools" she attended during her high school years and her efforts to convince her parents to bring her home.

Paris recalled during one of her allocated 15-minute calls with her mom, she tried to explain, "This place is f---ed up! You don't even know!"

In 2021, Hilton called on President Joe Biden and Congress to enact reform for youth in congregate care and behavior-modification programs, as she detailed her experiences in the system for an op-ed published by the Washington Post.

"At all four facilities I was sent to in my teens, I endured physical and psychological abuse by staff: I was choked, slapped across the face, spied on while showering and deprived of sleep. I was called vulgar names and forced to take medication without a diagnosis," Hilton wrote, in part. "At one Utah facility, I was locked in solitary confinement in a room where the walls were covered in scratch marks and blood stains."

"Congress and President Biden need to enact a basic federal 'bill of rights' for youth in congregate care. Every child placed in these facilities should have a right to a safe, humane environment, free from threats and practices of solitary confinement, and physical or chemical restraint at the whim of staff," Hilton wrote. "Had such rights existed and been enforced, I and countless other survivors could have been spared the abuse and trauma that have haunted us into adulthood.

If you suspect child abuse, call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or go to www.childhelp.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.

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