Paris Hilton: Why I support a California bill to stop institutional abuse | Opinion
When I was 16, strangers came into my bedroom in the middle of the night. They said I was going to a place that would help me. Instead, I was locked in a facility and cut off from my family and the outside world. I was screamed at, restrained and abused.
I begged for someone to listen. No one did.
The individuals who took me were professional transporters who took me CEDU in California, a “troubled teen boarding school.” It was the first of four facilities I was forced to attend over the course of two years. I was also sent to Ascent Wilderness and Utah’s Provo Canyon School (owned by Universal Health Services, which was investigated by the Senate Finance Committee).
For years, I stayed silent. I was told no one would believe me — that I was just a troubled kid. I was told that what I went through didn’t matter.
But it did. And it still does.
Sharing my story has been one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, but also one of the most meaningful, because I’ve learned I wasn’t alone. Thousands of other young people — especially students with disabilities — have been placed in out-of-state residential facilities under the promise of education or mental health care. Too many have experienced the same kind of pain, isolation and trauma I did.
That’s why I’m urging California lawmakers to pass Senate Bill 373, authored by Sen. Shannon Grove, R-Bakersfield, which would add desperately needed safeguards for students with disabilities placed in non-public schools, especially those sent out of state through Individualized Education Programs.
Right now, more than 300 California students are living in out-of-state facilities with almost no real oversight. Parents are left in the dark, and children have no safe or private way to report harm. When abuse happens, there’s no clear path to intervene.
These dangers aren’t hypothetical: In 2021, California made the right decision to stop placing foster youth in out-of-state institutions. The state recognized that sending vulnerable kids far from home, with little oversight, created unacceptable risks. But today, students with disabilities are still being sent to those same kinds of institutions.
SB 373 would help fix this by requiring regular private check-ins with students, guaranteeing parents the right to annual in-person Individualized Education Program meetings and strengthening staff training and state monitoring. Most importantly, it gives students and families real ways to get help before it’s too late.
Over the last few years, I’ve advocated for many survivors of institutional child abuse. I’ve heard story after story from young people who were sent far from home to places where their voices were ignored and their rights violated.
We can’t undo what’s been done, but we can build a future where no child is sent away and forgotten.
SB 373 is about basic safety, accountability and humanity. These are our children, and California has a moral responsibility to protect them.
Paris Hilton is a businesswoman, leader, social justice activist, innovator and pop culture icon. She is the CEO of 11:11 Media and author of “Paris: The Memoir.”
This story was originally published August 26, 2025 at 11:27 AM with the headline "Paris Hilton: Why I support a California bill to stop institutional abuse | Opinion."