Paris Hilton testifies against strict boarding school: ‘I was beaten for years’

Phew. The YouTube docu This is Paris is one that I won't forget anytime soon. Contrary to what I thought, it was not at all about glitter shoes and chihuahuas, but rather about the traumatic experiences that Paris had as a 16-year-old girl at the Provo Canyon School, a boarding school where she would be beaten, choked, and locked up for years.

I mean: yes, she grew up in Hollywood, is the heiress of a Hilton legacy with millions in sight, and yes, maybe that's not exactly a healthy foundation for a child. Perhaps the chance of rebellion is also greater if you are treated like a princess from a young age. But the fact that Paris, at sixteen, was dragged out of her bed by men in the middle of the night without knowing and was placed in an institution with her parents' consent remains a bizarre story.

On Monday, Paris testified in a court in the state of Utah about her experiences at the school. ‘My name is Paris Hilton. I speak today on behalf of the hundreds of thousands of children who are currently in boarding schools across the country,’ she begins her story. ‘For twenty years, I have had the same nightmare in which I am kidnapped in the middle of the night by two strangers, searched while naked, and locked up in an institution. I wish this horrible nightmare were just a dream, but it is not.’

Paris continues: ‘I was treated inhumanely every day. Without ever receiving a diagnosis, I was forced to take medication that made me feel numb and exhausted. I had no fresh air for eleven months. There was no privacy: when I used the toilet or showered, I was watched. I was sixteen years old, a child, and felt their eyes on my naked body all the time.’

A parenting course: à la, but isn't this disgusting? As parents, you shouldn't want this for your child, right? Anyhow, Paris is one of the three witnesses who testified on Monday at the request of a senator in Utah, who wants the rules for schools like Provo to be tightened. And rightly so. Joejoe, it's 2021 America. We don't do medieval practices anymore. Time's up.