Althouse: "When I was 16 years old, I was ripped from my bed in the middle of the night and transported across state lines to the first of four youth residential treatment facilities."

June 27, 2024

"When I was 16 years old, I was ripped from my bed in the middle of the night and transported across state lines to the first of four youth residential treatment facilities."

"These programs promised healing, growth and support but instead did not allow me to speak, move freely or even look out a window for two years. I was force-fed medications and sexually abused by the staff. I was violently restrained and dragged down hallways, stripped naked and thrown into solitary confinement. My parents were completely deceived, lied to and manipulated by this for-profit industry about the inhumane treatment I was experiencing."

Paris Hilton testified to the House Ways and Means Committee, quoted in "Paris Hilton recounts child abuse in congressional testimony/The 43-year-old media personality’s statement was her latest push for change in what’s often called the 'troubled teen' industry" (WaPo).

54 comments:

mccullough said...: The Rich are Different; 6/27/24, 9:41 AM
rhhardin said...: I'd expect anal probes, if it's like other recovered memories.; 6/27/24, 9:42 AM
rhhardin said...: My theory of alien anal probes is that you're remembering being dressed as an infant but without a solid hook to hang the memory on.; 6/27/24, 9:43 AM
Leland said...: I wonder what Ashley Biden might tell them?; 6/27/24, 9:44 AM
ron winkleheimer said...: Was reading the comments to the story and found this"

"There are still women out there who were abused as teenagers by Donal Trump 30 years ago.
Why isn’t Washington Post working with the guardian to give them a voice."

"The Post is a Republican newspaper now. Haven’t you heard?"

"Robert Murdoch is alive and well at WaPo!"

A hint, if everything you see and hear ends up being about Donald Trump, then he is living rent free in your head. He won.; 6/27/24, 9:48 AM
ron winkleheimer said...: @Leland

The same thing applies to Joe Biden.; 6/27/24, 9:49 AM
tim maguire said...: mccullough said...The Rich are Different

What she really needed was to spend a summer at a farm digging ditches, fixing fences, and slopping pigs.; 6/27/24, 9:55 AM
Old and slow said...: I've known two people who were grabbed in the middle of the night by goons hired by their parents and taken to camps in Utah for "rehabilitation". These were pretty normal but not perfect teens. What they later described to me sounds a lot like what she just said. One guy came back from the experience and went to university, and ultimately became a lawyer (make what you will of that...). He was the kind of guy who was always likely to thrive. The other guy went on to a pretty screwed up life. Parents should not be free to have their teen children kidnapped and imprisoned.; 6/27/24, 9:57 AM
NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...: I'm somewhat skeptical of the source, given that her career has been being famous because she's famous. I haven't heard of her in a while, and maybe she's trying to be famous again.

That being said, I've heard enough stories from other people to suggest that bad things happen to people in prison.

I have a growing suspicion that drug use leads to bad outcomes.; 6/27/24, 10:01 AM
NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...: @Old and slow

Despite my flippancy, yes, it's fucked up. I would rather throw my kid out than do that.; 6/27/24, 10:03 AM
MadisonMan said...: My parents were completely deceived, lied to and manipulated by this for-profit industry about the inhumane treatment I was experiencing
I think that would be the only thing parents could say when confronted by what happened. "We had no idea!" Really? What were they expecting?; 6/27/24, 10:15 AM
Leland said...: Blogger ron winkleheimer said...
@Leland

The same thing applies to Joe Biden.

Do you mean Joe Biden's rehab or the diatribe you wrote about Trump living in people's head? Because Ashley Biden was put into rehab, like Paris Hilton, and that's my point. Can you explain yours for clarity? Because I wasn't aware Joe ever went to rehab.; 6/27/24, 10:16 AM
Sally327 said...: This seems to be in the same ball park as parents who listen to medical professionals who tell them that their child is gender confused and needs surgery.

But then there are the parents who don't listen, like the couple in Michigan who dismissed warnings about their teenage son's mental health and actually bought him a gun. Which he then used to kill some students at his high school. I don't think those parents who had the money to ship him off to some boot camp for kids, even if they'd been of a mind to do that, which maybe wouldn't have made a difference anyway.; 6/27/24, 10:16 AM
Patrick said...: Either outright lies or gross exaggerations by a classic narcissist; 6/27/24, 10:19 AM
traditionalguy said...: The powerful also don’t take crap from their teenage offspring. Their money and court connection’s quickly use legal torture on them until they behave, or else. Being Lobotomized by surgery is out of fashion. But there is always EST.; 6/27/24, 10:22 AM
ron winkleheimer said...: @Leland

Ashley Biden went into a rehab facility, as an adult, voluntarily. That isn't the same thing as what Paris Hilton went through.

And I meant what I said, if everything you experience leads you to think about some particular thing, then you should consider if you are obsessed with that thing.; 6/27/24, 10:24 AM
Leland said...: @ Ron Winkleheimer

That's fine, but I could have mentioned Amy Winehouse but she's dead and cannot testify. I mentioned Ashley Biden, because Rehab didn't seem to work for her as well.

The only person bringing Joe Biden to this conversation is you, so please consider rehabilitation for your obsession.; 6/27/24, 10:29 AM
The Vault Dweller said...: I do not doubt that Paris Hilton at 16 was a selfish, entitled, cruel child. I also suspect that her being that way was probably due to the way her parents raised her. However, while I don't have any children of my own, my own instinct is that a child's lifetime, say 13 or 14 years, of sparing the rod can't be fixed by dispensing that many years' worth of rod in a short time period.; 6/27/24, 10:29 AM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Whatever happened to sending kids abroad to learn how other people live.

From a 2022 post: "The Dutch like to say, 'Acting normal is crazy enough.' And we think that rich people are not acting normal."

“When I was about 11 years old, we had an American boy stay with us for a week, an exchange student,” she recalled. “And my mother told him, just make your own sandwich like you do in America. Instead of putting one sausage on his bread, he put on five. My mother was too polite to say anything to him, but to me she said in Dutch, ‘We will never eat like that in this house.’”

Gwyneth Paltrow stayed with Spain royalty in her youth. She speaks perfect Spanish.; 6/27/24, 10:31 AM
ron winkleheimer said...: @Leland

touché!; 6/27/24, 10:38 AM
Achilles said...: Paris Hilton testified to the House Ways and Means Committee, quoted in "Paris Hilton recounts child abuse in congressional testimony..."

Why is this in Ways and Means?

Oh that's right the House doesn't write budgets anymore.

I guess they have nothing else to do.; 6/27/24, 10:46 AM
Kai Akker said...: "for profit"

She worked that in there. Carefully, I imagine. They must have wanted to abuse a Hilton so badly.; 6/27/24, 10:46 AM
Joe Smith said...: These are weird organizations.

I guess she has an explanation for why she's so fucked up.

Also, I love how we get a story about Paris Hilton and a comment about eating too many sausages in the same post.; 6/27/24, 10:47 AM
Joe Smith said...: 'Ashley Biden went into a rehab facility, as an adult, voluntarily. That isn't the same thing as what Paris Hilton went through.'

Did Paris shower with her captors?; 6/27/24, 10:49 AM
Narayanan said...: Gwyneth Paltrow stayed with Spain royalty in her youth. She speaks perfect Spanish.
=============
I have not heard her
does perfect Spanish have received enunciation?; 6/27/24, 10:51 AM
ron winkleheimer said...: "Did Paris shower with her captors?"

According to her testimony she and other girls were spied on in the shower and sexually abused.

And none of this has any connection to Ashley Biden.; 6/27/24, 10:54 AM
CJinPA said...: I'd have to know if the first time she told this story was in front of cameras before I can calibrate a reaction.

I'm not unfeeling, just realistic. She made a living mixing truth and fiction for reality TV.; 6/27/24, 10:55 AM
JK Brown said...: Here parent's weren't deceived or manipulated. They handed her over to those people. They should have insisted on close monitoring, and they had the money to hire someone to do it.

You hand over a teenager to people with near unlimited power over them, they will be abused. It's a given that sooner or later, the organization will collect the people who will do it. And in frustration, "good" people will cross the lines. It's a given.; 6/27/24, 11:07 AM
Achilles said...: ron winkleheimer said...

"Did Paris shower with her captors?"

According to her testimony she and other girls were spied on in the shower and sexually abused.

And none of this has any connection to Ashley Biden.

There is a movement that is trying to make pedophilia and child sexual abuse normal again.

Joe Biden is a leader in that movement.; 6/27/24, 11:08 AM
NKP said...: I have a good female friend who was a running mate of Paris back in the wild days. Similar (no "incarceration") personal histories. Regard for her privacy compels me to omit details.

She's become a strong, loving and responsible woman. She can delight you, charm you, challenge you, scare you and break your heart, all at once, it seems. What she will never do is claim victim's privilege.

I cut Paris and other "celebrities" a good amount of slack. They tend to see truth, beauty and the abyss through a different lens than you and I.; 6/27/24, 11:10 AM
William said...: Rich kids have their own special problems. I never heard stories like this, but rich kids do like to sit around and tell sad stories about cruel nannies. Rich people should hire nannies with the same care that they hire divorce attorneys. By and large though, it's better to be young and rich than old and poor. There are sadder stories than Paris Hilton's.; 6/27/24, 11:22 AM
Joe Smith said...: 'And none of this has any connection to Ashley Biden.'

You must be fun at parties.

Please don't tell uncle Joe I was mean. I don't want to get in trouble...; 6/27/24, 11:40 AM
Tom T. said...: Her family's story has always been that Paris was raised strictly - e g., no dating, makeup, school dances - and she rebelled, sneaking out to NYC nightclubs and such. She also says that because she was a young hottie with a famous name, club owners paid her to show up.

I don't know if she was ever actually diagnosed with an emotional disorder, but her parents sent her to more than one of these boot camp schools for messed-up kids. I believe she has only been discussing the abuses there for the last few years, though.; 6/27/24, 11:51 AM
n.n said...: There is a movement that is trying to make pedophilia and child sexual abuse normal again.

Progressives, Liberals... Democrats pass laws in sanctuary States that assert you cannot discriminate for sexual orientation. All's fair lust and abortion. Demos-cracy, however, is resisting these social conservatives of millenia past.; 6/27/24, 12:14 PM
Jupiter said...: "You hand over a teenager to people with near unlimited power over them, they will be abused. It's a given that sooner or later, the organization will collect the people who will do it. And in frustration, "good" people will cross the lines. It's a given."

Case in point, the public school system. And yes, I believe Paris Hilton. My parents sent me off to get "fixed" by some charlatan when I was 14. Fortunately, my older sister saved me.

Whenever you have a problem that has no simple solution, there will be grifters who claim to provide that simple solution. Or, well, I guess there was a simple solution to the Rose Kennedy problem. And it was, in fact, provided.; 6/27/24, 12:20 PM
Nancy Reyes said...: so what do you do with an out of control teenager?

what is the alternative?
Other cultures will marry a girl off to an older man to control her, and Arab countries do honor killings. Troubled boys were sent to work or to join the military.
Today's American just put the bad boys into jail, which is why the incarceration rate is so high. For girls, the social workers just tell the girl to have a kid and get welfare so she can leave her family, and of course that is why so many grandparents end up raising the grandkids because their moms are too destroyed by drugs and promiscuity to bother about taking care of the child.; 6/27/24, 12:26 PM
Dogma and Pony Show said...: I assume she's telling the truth about her experiences, but stories like this seem designed to provoke the impulse to give government, schools, the medical establishment, and other NON-parent authorities more and more say in how children should be raised. It's fine to say parents shouldn't be allowed to kidnap and imprison their children. However, what are the chances that any future law inspired by stories such as this will be drafted and construed so that it SOLELY applies to the kidnapping and imprisoning of children by their parents?

In their dream world, you just know that lonely, bitter, and angry leftists, who generally lack any children of their own, want to acquire the power to control the upbringing of children who are being raised in traditional, conservative, and religious family settings. Stories like this are part of the propaganda effort to realize that dream someday.; 6/27/24, 12:52 PM
ron winkleheimer said...: "Please don't tell uncle Joe I was mean. I don't want to get in trouble..."

I'm a Trump supporter who thinks that Biden stole the 2020 election and is a disaster as a president. But that doesn't change the fact that Ashley Biden's and Paris Hilton's situations have no relationship to each other and trying to connect them is a non sequitur. And yes, I am a lot of fun at parties.; 6/27/24, 12:54 PM
Maynard said...: I worked in the "troubled teen" industry from 1980-84 as a Clinical Specialist (a BA/MA level job).

It was intense work and a lot of kids benefitted from it. I don't know where Paris was institutionalized (typically a psychiatric hospital), but stripping someone naked was something that never happened in my experience.

Kids were put in restraints when they violently acted out and kids were also put in a (solitary) quiet room. However, her story strikes me as a drama queen narrative.

There were some verbally abusive peers in my experience and I called them out. However, I was unaware of physical or sexual abuse. In my mind, the greatest abuse was the stupidity of the psychiatric nurses who ostensibly ran the units.; 6/27/24, 1:09 PM
Jupiter said...: "so what do you do with an out of control teenager?"

Yeah, that is the problem. When your kid is causing you huge problems, and some dirtbag says he can fix it for money, the powerful temptation is to pay the money. And if the problem goes away, when the kid goes away, well, case closed.

Speaking as a former out of control teenager, the reason I was "out of control" was that I was being forced to get up every morning and go to a public junior high school where I was randomly tortured by a bunch of losers. I hated it, and wanted it to stop, but it wouldn't. My teenagers have never been sent to public schools, and they seem to have themselves under an entirely satisfactory degree of control. Really, entirely. When we argue, it's about what to have for dinner.; 6/27/24, 1:11 PM
Jupiter said...: "I don't know where Paris was institutionalized (typically a psychiatric hospital), but stripping someone naked was something that never happened in my experience."

I was sent to a live-in "school" located in a couple of large houses near San Diego. I don't recall having been stripped naked, but I was beaten and forced to sleep in the same bed with the "therapist", a 28-year old man with no particular credentials. He explained to me that I was different than the other boys. I was "sensitive". I was lucky it wasn't a lot worse. Once some wacko adult gets hold of you, they can do anything they like, if you don't have allies. Run away and the police bring you back. Your parents think it's "for the best". I was seriously considering burning the place down. Like I said, my older sister saved me.; 6/27/24, 1:19 PM
Leland said...: fact that Ashley Biden's and Paris Hilton's situations have no relationship to each other

They are both 43. Both grew up in influential northeast families with wealth and power. Both were traumatized as youths. Both spent time in some form of rehabilitation. Both have their own fashion business today. Both might have something interesting to tell Congress about their experiences growing up.

Both are fun at parties, although that is probably a non-sequitur, sort of like mentioning Joe Biden.; 6/27/24, 1:26 PM
Anita said...: Tori Hope Peterson, author of the book "Fostered," also testified about the foster care system. This young woman was in foster care for much of her youth until her track coach decided to bring her into his family. She emphasized that it was the Christian community living out the true meaning of their faith and leading her to faith in Christ that saved her, not any government program.; 6/27/24, 1:27 PM
Leland said...: Ivanka Trump is a year younger at 42. Paris and Ivanka were acquaintances as youths. Ivanka does have her own fashion business today. Although Ivanka had a similar upbringing; since she wasn't traumatized as a youth and went to rehab, then she probably doesn't have anything interesting to tell Congress. That last part is the important part for the discussion.; 6/27/24, 1:37 PM
M said...: Teens who run wild end up worse.

We don’t need less residential programs, we need better supervision of staff. We need a society that doesn’t encourage young people to live down to their worse impulses.; 6/27/24, 1:46 PM
n.n said...: Ivanka... she probably doesn't have anything interesting to tell Congress. That last part is the important part for the discussion.

Trump has a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful daughter. Stop. The apple of her father's eye.; 6/27/24, 1:58 PM
NKP said...: There are sadder stories than Paris Hilton's.

Indeed. We should have an "I have a sadder story than you contest".

A long time ago, I knew a beautiful young woman who "adopted" a man twice her age (me). I never asked her for a thing but she was obsessed with offering everything.

I suspect her story was much like Biden's daughter's.

She had a cold and distant father whose only apparent interest was that she not wet the bed. From the time she could remember, until her early teens, he came into her room every night, pulled her panties off to see if they were wet and then put his hand between her legs to feel for signs of dampness.

She learned what pleased men and desperately sought ones who would offer kindness and affection in exchange.

Eventually, I had to forbid my own drop-dead-gorgeous 15-year-old daughter from baby-sitting for her. When her husband was away for work (frequently) she'd bring one or more salivating males home with her. Beyond acceptable risk.

She didn't speak to me for more than a year after that but there were unmistakeable anonymous notes, gifts, etc.

Our "relationship" continued for about a dozen years (and four husbands). The calls stopped when I went dark - no pulic address - no listed phone.

At a certain age, many of us wonder whatever became of this person or that. Easy, peasy in the digital age. Sucks when they turn out to be dead. In this case, many years ago. Dallas. A few weeks after divorce from 4th or 5th husband. Suicide? Homicide? Drugs? She was only 36.

I planted a tree in the back yard and named it after her. It's doing well. I say a prayer for her every night. Anyone who says they have no regrets in life is a fucking liar.; 6/27/24, 2:20 PM
NKP said...: Today's American just put the bad boys into jail, which is why the incarceration rate is so high

The incarceration rate is high among a certain demographic. They are not "bad boys", they are dangerous criminals who beat, rape and kill without a second thought - until they're arrested because they thought the video of the crime was really cool.

"Bad boys" are people like the Coasters' "Charlie Brown". Nobody's going to jail for acting-up like Charlie Brown in the classroom. Far worse behavior in the classroom is now ignored and tolerated, if not actually protected.; 6/27/24, 2:33 PM
PM said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 6/27/24, 4:33 PM
n.n said...: Ripped from my womb... room, when I was most vulnerable is a progressive theme with liberal bylines.; 6/27/24, 4:52 PM
Marcus Bressler said...: I sincerely hope that is not where she learned to give such good head. I suspect it was "taught" to her (or at least, "refined") at those oh, so very stylish clubs that paid her to be in attendance.
In the 80s, sex and drug use was the primary reason to go into the women's restroom. The men who went in had sex with women they may or may not have known much longer than a dance, or to do a line, a bump, a hit, or whatever terminology was used as that era progressed.* Those men did not go in pretending to be women, as is the case today.
* The boys and I went to a high end nudie bar in Pompano Beach during our wayward years. Unlike the discos, straight or gay, in this club you could not do cocaine out in the open. So I emptied out a Neo Synephrine squeeze bottle of its contents, rinsed it with water, then added maybe a tablespoon of hot water into it so the gram of cocaine I had dissolved easily.
All five of us suffered from nasal congestion that night, it seemed.; 6/27/24, 5:30 PM
Anne in Rockwall, TX said...: I haven't read all the comments but...

I worked 15 years in suburban Philly CYS-JV. What Ms. Hilton is describing was par for the course. Every single "youth boot camp" was the same. Take a child from parents that were embarrassed by their child's behavior, charge them an arm and a leg for "treatment'" and abuse them like crazy.

A lot of the funding they get beyond the parent's payments comes from Title IV-E of Social Security. As I was an independent contractor for Delaware County, I was able to serve on audit committees. It's was worse than she is claiming.; 6/27/24, 5:49 PM
Narr said...: It's a good thing Bobby Chumney (it was usually but not always his idea) and I never got caught at our worst escapades.; 6/27/24, 7:12 PM
Scott M said...: Damn!

Paris Hilton testifying before Congress is NOT on my 2024 bingo card. Anyone else have it?; 6/28/24, 12:03 AM