<\/p>\nThe staff then told her to \u201cshut up\u201d and \u201cbe quiet,\u201d she said, adding that she was assaulted this way multiple times. <\/p>\n
<\/span><\/p>\nHilton first opened up about the assault to the New York Times. <\/em><\/p>\n<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cI don’t know what they were doing, but it was definitely not a doctor and it was really scary,\u201d Hilton told the times<\/em>. \u201cNow looking back as an adult, that was definitely sexual abuse.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/span><\/p>\nHilton said she’d blocked out the memories, but they’ve come back now. <\/p>\n
<\/span><\/p>\nIt’s not the first time Hilton has spoken out about every time in the troubled teen industry. In fact, she’s spent the last few years advocating for an overhaul of the policies that make the industry possible. <\/p>\n
<\/span><\/p>\nThe troubled teen industry, which receives billions of dollars in public funding every year, is made up of treatment centers, boarding schools, wilderness programs, boot camps, and religious institutions that claim to rehabilitate youth with mental health struggles and behavioral issues. The billion-dollar industry continues to operate despite being marred with abuse and, including reports of abuse, conversion therapy. Experts often compare the institutions to prisons and point out the industry’s frequent use of strict and outdated strategies for dealing with kids. <\/p>\n
<\/span><\/p>\nCalifornia Rep. Adam Schiff previously estimated that between 2000 and 2015, more than 80 children died in troubled teen facilities, due to causes like strangulation, starvation, and suicide, VICE News reported.<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/p>\nHilton was sent to Provo Canyon by her parents in the 1990s. <\/p>\n
<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cMy parents were promised that tough love would fix me and that sending me across the country was the only way,\u201d Hilton told reporters last year when she visited the US Capitol to support legislation targeting the industry. <\/p>\n
<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cI was strangled, slapped across the face, watched in the shower by male staff, called vulgar names, forced to take medication without a diagnosis, not given a proper education, thrown into solitary confinement in a room covered in scratch marks and smeared in blood, and so much more.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/p>\nUniversal Health Services, which owns Provo Canyon, didn’t respond to a VICE News request for comment by the time of publication, but a spokesperson told the times <\/em>it can’t comment on individual cases, citing privacy laws. The organization denied several maintained, including use of solitary confinement or medication when doling out, and that corrective action is taken when staff act inappropriately, including via job termination.<\/p>\n<\/span><\/p>\nToday, Hilton refers to herself and others who’ve gone through similar experiences as \u201csurvivors.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cI was violated & I am crying as I type this because no one, especially a child, should be sexually abused,\u201d Hilton said. \u201cMy childhood was stolen from me & it kills me this is still happening to other innocent children.\u201d<\/p>\n
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