Paris Hilton describes how she was kidnapped from her bed, forced to cuddle and drugged patients with “butt juice” at the abusive residential treatment centers where she spent her teenage years

• Paris Hilton has become an advocate for ending abusive inpatient treatment centers for teenagers.

• In a new essay, she described being dragged out of her bed and into a treatment facility by strangers.

• The then-teenager thought she would be killed or raped by the men who took her to the cult-like center.

“I’m about to be raped. I’m about to be murdered,” Paris Hilton recalled as she thought when, as a teenager, she was shaken awake by two men who then took her out of her house in handcuffs.

In a new essay for The London Timesthe hotel heiress recalled in detail how she was dragged out of her bed in the middle of the night and taken to one of a number of residential treatment centers where she lived as a teenager and where she says she faced physical, sexual and psychological abuse.

Her parents, who watched her from her door as she screamed for help, had called the men over Take her to therapy for her “wild child” antics.

“A man pressed a sweaty palm over my mouth and jerked my head back,” Hilton wrote. “The other held up a pair of handcuffs.”

Hilton officials did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.

Hilton, who has campaigned to end abusive therapeutic teen boarding schools in recent years, said she was then transferred to a school run by CEDU Educational Services, transferred to a wilderness program and finally sent to Provo Canyon School in Utah became – where others Celebrities including Kat Von D say they were kidnapped and forced to attend.

Mel Wasserman, founder of CEDU Educational Services, Inc., died in 2002. CEDU’s therapeutic schools and treatment facilities closed in 2005 after numerous allegations of abuse. Provo Canyon School officials did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.

Cave hunting and forced cuddling

At the CEDU school, Hilton wrote that she was subjected to invasive cavity searches and hours of screaming abuse from staff and other patients, and was forced to snuggle with the people who abused her in a giant, forced snuggle puddle called “smooshing.” ”, what she was told was part of the therapeutic program.

The story goes on

She tried to run away several times but was eventually caught. She said CEDU staff used their escape attempts against her, “particularly the moment I kicked the van door in the face with a kangaroo – to convince my parents that I was on a dangerous downward spiral.” , so she was sent to a more restrictive mountain wilderness program.

“I mean, think about it: on the advice of a psychiatrist, you send your struggling child to this beautiful boarding school that costs a fortune,” Hilton wrote. “If the kid tries to run away, do you believe the kid who royally pissed you off? Or do you believe the psychiatrist who says the kid is a crazy, incorrigible liar?”

The teen was later transferred to Provo Canyon School, where she said staff acted out “from the power they had” over patients.

“They took us to the infirmary and made us lie on the table,” Hilton wrote. “We had to open our legs for their stubby fingers. If we resisted, there was always a tray of syringes. I don’t know what was in the ‘butt juice’ but I saw children fall to the ground the moment it was injected. “

Treatment centers compared to youth detention

678 facilities have designated themselves as Residential Treatment Centers (RTCs) as of 2016, according to 2019 statistics by the Office for Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Hilton, now married with a childhas become Outspoken advocate for ending abusive RTC practices for teenagers.

“It seems to be generally accepted that adolescents who are sent to RTCs exhibit increasingly intense and severe behavioral and emotional problems, academic problems, and substance use problems,” according to a 2019 OJJDP report. ” However, there is almost no research on the best target group for this type of facility and treatment.”

The OJJDP report added that in a study of 693 licensed and/or accredited child and youth RTCs in the United States, 82% of the facilities reported having used seclusion or restraint in the previous year.

And while the OJJDP said mental health and substance abuse professionals were calling for clearer enrollment criteria to prevent “juveniles being incarcerated in inappropriate environments,” the department noted that children incarcerated in juvenile detention centers may be more likely to provide meaningful help maintain mental health.

Representatives from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.

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