Paris Hilton is sharing photos of her that were taken immediately after she was abused at a boarding school in Utah.
Hilton, 39, was the first to talk about the alleged abuse in the 2020 documentary “This Is Paris”. The former “Simple Life” star said her parents, Kathy and Rick Hilton, sent her to a series of “emotional growth schools” when she was a rebellious teenager. After fleeing the first two schools, Hilton was sent to Utah’s Provo Canyon School, which she described as “the worst of the worst”.
In the backward photos she shared on Instagram on Thursday, Hilton is seen posing in a hat and a T-shirt with the NYPD logo. Your face in an image looks visibly tired.
“These photos were taken when I was 18 and recently came home from the horrible experiences I had at #ProvoCanyonSchool. I can see the pain in my eyes. I was so traumatized that I pretended it was okay, trying to block the painful memories,” he wrote Hilton in the caption.
“Looking at it now, I know that my teenager would be incredibly proud of the woman I am today,” she continued. “Be brave and use my voice to make a difference and save children from having to endure abuse myself and so many others have suffered. #ISeeYouSurvivor #BreakingCodeSilence 🙌”
In “This is Paris”, directed by Emmy winner Alexandra Dean, Hilton described the abuse she allegedly suffered at school as verbal, emotional and physical.
“You sit in a chair looking at the wall all day, getting screamed or banged,” she recalled in the film. “I felt that many people who worked there started to torture children and see them naked. They prescribed all those pills for everyone. I didn’t know what they were giving me.
‘I would just feel so tired and numb. Some people in that place were simply gone, as if the lights were on, no one at home. Many people were under suicide surveillance, and I was so afraid that it would happen to me, “she added.
School officials allegedly forced Hilton into solitary confinement when they found out she was not taking the pills she was given.
“I had a lot of problems because of that. Solitary confinement, like something out of ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’. They made people take off their clothes and spend 20 hours there. It felt like I was going crazy, “she recalled.” Someone was shouting in the other room in a straight jacket. I was freezing, starving. I was alone and I was scared. “
Several former Hilton classmates at Provo Canyon School appeared in the film to corroborate their story and share their own stories of abuse.
Following the release of the documentary last September, Hilton organized a protest at a park near Provo Canyon School, along with hundreds of others who said they had been abused at school or at similar schools for troubled youth. Hilton called for the school to close.
In September, a Provo Canyon representative responded to Hilton’s allegations in a statement to TODAY: “Originally opened in 1971, Provo Canyon School was sold for its previous property in August 2000. Therefore, we cannot comment on the operations or the patient experience before that time. “
The statement added in part: “Provo Canyon School today is an intensive psychiatric residential treatment center for young people between 8 and 18 years of age who have special, and often complex, emotional and mental health needs. Therapeutic interventions, academic instruction and life skills training tailored to the needs of each of our students. “
