The âStop Institutional Child Abuse Actâ will now head to President Bidenâs desk.
Paris Hilton is making strides for youth welfare on Capitol Hill, as the House passed the âStop Institutional Child Abuse Actâ with overwhelming bipartisan support on Dec. 18.
The measure passed by a vote of 373â33 after unanimously clearing the Senate last week, and will now head to President Joe Bidenâs desk.
Further, the bill would require the Department of Health & Human Services to work with other agencies to study and make additional recommendations about oversight of youth residential programs.
âIt was proof that when we listen to survivors and put politics aside, we can create real, meaningful change. But this journey isnât over. I canât celebrate until this bill becomes law,â she said.
The 43-year-old has spent years advocating for reauthorization of funding for child welfare services and more oversight of youth residential treatment facilities, an industry she said she suffered under in her youth.
âI did this for the younger version of myself and the youth who were senselessly taken from us by the Troubled Teen industry,â she said.
At age 17, Hilton attended the school for 11 months, recalling staff members would beat her, force her to take unknown pills, watch her shower, and send her to solitary confinement without clothes as punishment.
As a result of her treatment, Hilton said she has suffered nightmares and insomnia for years, describing the experience as âtraumatizing.â
The events were recounted in her documentary, âThis is Paris,â released in 2020, before she testified at a state Senate committee hearing at the Utah Capitol, and eventually before the House Ways and Means Committee in Washington.
The Provo institution is now under new ownership, and in a statement in 2021, said it âcannot comment on the operations or student experience prior toâ August 2000, but âacknowledge there are are individuals over the many years who believe they were not helped by the program.â
California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation in September supported by Hilton that increases public transparency and protection of youth against the âinappropriate use of restraints and isolation in residential treatment facilities.â
Original News Source Link – Epoch Times
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