Paris Hilton says she was sexually abused as a teen at boarding school
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Paris Hilton has spoken out about the alleged abuse she says she faced as a teenager while attending Provo Canyon School, a therapeutic boarding school, in Utah.
Hilton claims that she and other female students were subjected to "medical exams" at "three or four in the morning" by multiple staff members as part of an exposé on the troubled teen industry published in the The New York Times on Tuesday.
"It wasn't even with a doctor — it was with a couple different staff members, where they would have us lay on the table and put their fingers inside of us," Hilton said. "I don't know what they were doing, but it was definitely not a doctor."
Randy Shropshire/Getty Images Paris Hilton
Holding back tears, Hilton added, "It was really scary and something that I really had blocked out for many years, but it's coming back all the time now and I think about it. Now, looking back as an adult, that was definitely sexual abuse."
Following its publication, the Cooking With Paris star shared the article on her Twitter account and further detailed the "cervical exams" she says she received at Provo.
"Sleep-deprived & heavily medicated, I didn't understand what was happening. I was forced to lie on a padded table, spread my legs & submit to cervical exams," she wrote. "I cried while they held me down & said, 'No!' They just said, 'Shut up. Be quiet. Stop struggling or you'll go to Obs.'"
Hilton added that it was a "recurring experience not only for me but for other survivors," saying, "I was violated & I am crying as I type this because no one, especially a child, should be sexually abused. My childhood was stolen from me & it kills me this is still happening to other innocent children."
She continued, "It's important to open up about these painful moments so I can heal & help put an end to this abuse."
A representative for Provo Canyon School responded to EW's request for comment, pointing to a media statement on its website that notes, "Provo Canyon School was sold by its previous ownership in August 2000. We therefore cannot comment on the operations or student experience prior to that time."
Hilton attended Provo Canyon School in the 1990s. She first opened up about her experience there in her 2020 YouTube documentary This Is Paris. The school, which came under Universal Health Services' ownership in 2000, is described on its website as an "intensive, psychiatric youth residential treatment center."
Since the documentary's release, Hilton has continued to be an advocate for child facility reform. In October 2021, she urged congress to pass the Accountability for Congregate Care Act in a passionate speech on Capitol Hill.
"I wish I could tell you that what I experienced and witnessed was unique or even rare, but sadly it's not," she said at the time. "Every day in America, children in congregate care settings are being physically, emotionally, and sexually abused. Children are even dying at the hands of those responsible for their care."
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