This is… My Trip to The White House

It’s late at night in Washington DC… Paris has just returned to her hotel room and is sharing every emotional detail with you.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
This is Paris. Yea. Hey everyone, greetings from Washington, DC.
Sorry I've lost my voice. I've been here all week.
It's um been a crazy, busy, hectic week, but so impactful,

(00:28):
so empowering. I am just so proud of all the
progress we're making and all the change we're making. And
it has really just been an incredible trip. Um. We
arrived on Monday, and every single day I have been
getting up at six am going straight to the Capitol

(00:50):
doing meetings back to back um with senators and legislators
and members of Congress and also all the amazing people
who work with all the legislators. Everybody has been so
kind and so understanding and really listening and understanding, you know,

(01:11):
what is a serious issue. This is. So for the
first night, we had all of the survivors come meet
me at the Conrad Hotel and we had this huge
auditorium area where we all meet signs just about what
these facilities did teach of us. And these were the

(01:31):
signs for the next day when we were going to
the Capitol, because we're going to be bringing the solitary
confinement booth. They'll tell you more about that in a minute.
And then the next morning. The first place we went
was directly to the White House, and we met with
so many amazing, brilliant, powerful women. I will tell you

(01:53):
more about them later. And they were all so kind
and compassionate and really listened to our stories. And these
are hard stories to hear, really hard, really hard to say,
but to hear for the first time, it's it's shocking,
it's heartbreaking. Senator Sarah Guessler is with us. She is

(02:18):
a Senator from Oregon. She has been fighting for this
cause for years and years, so I'm so happy to
have joined forces with her as well, because she is
just such a fighter, so amazing and just such a kind,
good person. Um, I should get her on the podcast.
I mean, actually awesome. I'm okay, I learn do that.

(02:40):
Another thing, if you guys want to go check out
one of my other podcasts that I produce. It's called
Trapped in Treatment. And I have my girls. Rebecca Mellinger,
she is my head of Impact at eleven eleven Media.
She is amazing. She's so passionate about this. She dedicates

(03:03):
her life to this and I'm so lucky to have
her on my team. And Caroline Coles, she's another Survivor.
She is the CEO of Unsilenced. You can check them
out now at Unsilenced Underscore. Now, I haven't been to
the White House since I was a little girl. I'm
gonna actually post this cute photo of my mom and

(03:25):
I standing in front of the White House. I'm probably
like a year and a half old. It's so cute.
Um yeah, so I'll post that to um. It was
just so surreal, so amazing too. It's a little girl.
I never thought I would be at the White House
literally coming here to help pass legislation and bills and laws.

(03:52):
Like wow, I feel like L Woods. I wanted to
actually wear a pink like l Woods because m she's
just iconic. But then I was like, no, I need
to be taken seriously like that. It's just like obviously
one of the most iconic movies in the world. I
love it. I as brought Diamond Baby, my little trawlway here.

(04:15):
I wanted to bring her and be like, oh, it's
Bruiser and we're like a really cute pink Channel soup.
But I decided now I want to be taken seriously.
So I've only been wearing black suits like my Alice
and Olivia suits. The pants um like navy blue, like
business jackets. So because I just came here and the

(04:38):
whole bar we you know Paris persona. Look, I don't
think they would take me seriously. Not that you can't
be pink and not to be taken seriously, do you
know what I mean? And I've just been just so
touched by, um, just the reactions that we've got, because
we've had meetings with so many people who really can

(05:01):
help make change and really pass this legislation. It's for
the Stop Institutional Child Abuse Act, and this is a
bill that we're working on too. Basically, give children human rights,
give them the right to not be abused. But basically

(05:24):
it's and like it blows my mind that we even
have to make laws for this. This should just be
common sense, but unfortunately, there's some very bad people in
the world. We have two inert survivors that have flown
in driven here. Um, They've came from all over the
country and we've all come here to stand together and

(05:47):
solidarity and be the voices for those who don't have
a voice. It just made me so happy to see everyone.
I am just so proud of all of us just
taking back our power, you using our voices, making real
impact and just raising awareness because so many people aren't
aware of what's happening behind closed doors in the so

(06:10):
called therapeutic boarding schools, wilderness camps, behavioral modification program. There's
so many different names for these places and the things
that happened these places are inhumane, cruel, vicious, sick. The
people who work at these places are scary, mean, cruel,

(06:38):
just sick people who should be nowhere near children. And
I know this from personal experience and also just being
here this whole week with everyone, it's really opened my
eyes even more, everyone telling me their stories and to
all my survivor family listening now, thank you all so

(06:59):
much for all of your kind words. You have no
idea how much it means to me. Um, I've just
been so touched. I want to say thank you to
you all as well, because so many of you I
was speaking with or saying thank you so much, and
after watching your documentary This is Paris that it changed

(07:21):
my life and it made me heal and made me
finally tell my story as well and heal with my family,
and I have people finally believe me and understand me,
and people saying you saved my life like that. I

(07:42):
was literally in tears just hearing, because I had no
idea how the world was going to react when I
tell I told my story, and that's you know, it's
been so hard to hold. I don't know, just to
have to think about. But I do really believe that
saying that the truth will set you free, and by

(08:03):
telling my truth, it really has set me free and
so many others. And I'm really just so grateful to
Alexander Dene, the director of my documentary, for really just
being such a good friend and someone I could trust
and open up to because I literally had I never

(08:26):
talked about it with my family and my sister, my friends,
no one knew. And she really made me comfortable and
pulled it out of me and then told researched and
told me I was still happening. I had no idea
this was still happening today. And when she told me Paris,
like she literally when on my computer, started googling everything,

(08:47):
showing me Provo Canyon School, showing me all the other
you know, facilities around the world, and all of the
deaths that are happening, the children from the foster care system,
children just who already have had enough trauma in their
lives being sent to even more traumatized. And if if

(09:12):
you're not a survivor, but you're just listen a listener
of this podcast, please search a search trouble teen industry,
search breaking code Silence search survivors of the trouble Team industry.
There you will literally go down a rabbit hole. It's
just it's never ending there everywhere, and they're getting away

(09:32):
with literal murder. It's heartbreaking. Another thing that's been so
heartbreaking this week is I've been with this girl at
Amber Wood's family. If you look up hashtag justice for
Amber or hashtag justice for Amber Wood, and you'll see

(09:57):
her story and her mother, her father, her two brothers.
We've flown out here to be here for the week
to stand with us and to speak to legislators and
tell their story. And they sent their daughter to a
treatment center where they thought that she'd be taken care

(10:18):
of and she died there. And just hearing their stories
and this is not a rare story. This type of
thing happens all the time in the troubled tea and industry.
And just to see her mother and her father and
their brothers and how heartbroken they are. These places destroy families,

(10:41):
they destroy the children in there. There's Monique, another girl
died in there, and her mother and her twin sister
here and heartbroken and will never be the same. I
also met his grandmother who sent her grandson. He was

(11:04):
only there a few weeks and he also lost his
life as well in one of these types of treatment centers.
There are hundreds of stories of deaths. There are thousands
and thousands of stories of verbal, emotional, psychological, sexual abuse.

(11:24):
It's it's so heartbreaking, and that's why I'm not going
to stop fighting until change is made. These places need
to be held accountable. Enough is enough? How many more
children and need to die before they understand that they
need to shut these places down, give oversight, regulation, There

(11:45):
needs to be rules. People are literally getting away with murder.
And I've seen it with my own eyes what they
do to these children. I'll be affective for the rest
of my life or what I went through these places
Provo Canyon School, Ascent, Cascade and c Do I know

(12:06):
that do an Ascent shutdown because they had children dying?
They're being physically and sexually abused. Like I said, please
google it, check it out, Please spread the word. We
want to raise as much awareness as possible. This is
a twenty three billion dollar a year industry, literal tax

(12:29):
payers money is going to these places to have children
be abused and traumatized. It makes me sick. All right,
I'm going to do another pod post tomorrow. My voice
is gone. This is like I said, have been a
very busy week. And I actually just got home from
a DJ said that I did for Think of Us,

(12:55):
which is another advocacy group that's working for foster care children,
and we've been teaming up together because we are fighting
for the same thing, and foster care children are stuck
in these places like Provo and other abuse of schools,
so we are all joining forces with silence now breaking
code silence. Go check them out as well. Please. And

(13:18):
my friends six Dough think of Us as his group.
They had their launch party tonight and they asked me
if I would DJ, and I said, of course. So
we invited all of the survivors. We invited the staff
members who work at Congress and at the Capitol and
for the legislators who are amazing because they are the

(13:41):
ones who do so much hard work and we just
had so much fun. It was. It was a really
an amazing night after just such a really emotional and
hard week. Um. So it was nice to see everyone
dancing and smiling. It was. It was just so much fun.
I loved it. I loved it so much. I loved
seeing everyone smile. There's these two little girls in the

(14:05):
front row. Um, when I was deejaying and they were dancing,
they were so cute. I think there may have been
like eleven and twelve years old. They were adorable. If
you look at my Instagram story now you'll see them like.
I love them. So shout out girls if you're listening.
And yeah, it's just it's really been such a special trip.

(14:27):
And I'm I've never been prouder in my life. Yes,
I just feel about I've done a lot of things
in my life and I'm proud of but this, by
far is the thing that I'm most proud of, and
this is my mission in life. This is what I
want my legacy to be. Um. I really just even

(14:50):
though it was the most horrible and tragic and just
horrible experience of my life, It'll all be worth it
if I can stop it from happening. To other children.
But something I've been thinking about is maybe God made

(15:10):
me go through this and gave me the special gift
so that one day I could be the hero I
needed when I was a little girl. Oh yeah, and
another story made me so happy there was another survivor there.
We spoke at the press conference. Actually I'll tell you
guys about that tomorrow. About the solitary confinement booth that

(15:32):
we had built and put in front of the capital.
I really wanted people to see an experience what it's
like and the thousands of children are locked in these
every single day, and these type of facilities. Sometimes I
was speaking to a couple of girls, once girls that
she was in their thirty days straight, another girl's ninety

(15:53):
days straight. These are little cement block rooms. Again look
at my Instagram and you can and see just it was.
It was very traumatizing actually to be back in there.
I was trying not to cry because there's just so
many people there and the cameras and then I was like,
oh no, um, but I couldn't help myself and just

(16:18):
really just brought back so many horrible memories. But it
was important for people to see and understand, and we
had other people able to go in and just see
how it failed to be in there. But I will
tell you more about that tomorrow. It is getting late
and I have to wake up again at six in
the morning, so I'm gonna go to bed that. I

(16:40):
also wanted to add in here my speech that I
did in front of the capital, something that really came
from my heart and something that's so important, and I'm
just I feel so proud to have told my story
and um just standing up with the other survivors here

(17:01):
in their stories. It was just a really empowering day.
Oh yeah, another story. Before I did a sleep, I
met this other survivor who came. She actually just got
out of Provocating School a few months ago. Her name
is Jade. She's amazing, and she told me that She's like, yeah,

(17:25):
when you came back in the with the signs and
you guys were doing the protest outside Provocating School, all
the girls saw you, and everyone was spaking get the
windows and trying to like say hi, and they were
all everyone was just in there and so happy. And
then the staff came and covered all the windows with

(17:47):
plexi glass and wouldn't let them look out. But she
was like we all call you our PCs queen and
we love you so much and thank you, and it
just that made me so happy because just being in
there and having no one know what was happening and
no one fighting for me, I'm so happy that I

(18:07):
could be the one to do that for them and
just for us all to come together. Just it's been
just so special to really make a difference in someone's life.
And I'll put Jade's story as well. I'm gonna put
everything together, so we'll have like a YouTube video I

(18:30):
will put out as well, so you guys can watch
and see this. It was just really incredible hearing everyone
be so brave. All Right, I'm gonna go to bed
because it's an early, very busy day tomorrow, but I
also just wanted to play you guys my speech that
I said in front of Capitol Hill. I was so

(18:50):
nervous and I very emotional. It was it's really difficult
speaking about so painful memories. So here's the speech that
I made in front of Capitol Hill. I was so
nervous and it was just really difficult to speak about

(19:12):
because so many people, there are so many cameras. And
then after we went back to the Capitol and we
went inside the congress room and I told my story.
This is Paris. Thank you everyone for coming today. It's

(19:40):
really hard being back in that room, but I want
to thank everyone for coming. Thank you Niamiah for having
the strength to speak publicly about Naomi's tragic death. I
want to share my sincere sympathy with you and your family.
If you're devastating loss, it is truly heartbreaking. I also
want to thank the s drivers and family members who

(20:01):
are here today, Caroline, Jade, Alan and Renee, for bravely
sharing their experiences with institutional abuse and the hope of
making a difference. Naomi's death is a heartbreaking example of
hundreds of preventable deaths due to neglect or physical abuse
at the hands of the troubled teen industry staff who

(20:23):
claimed to care for and provide mental health treatment over
one youth every year, and to add insult to injury,
taxpayers are spending and estimated twenty three billion dollars a
year to place children with disabilities, special education students, foster youth,

(20:43):
and other vulnerable kids in these often dangerous, traumatic, and
sometimes even deadly facilities. For decades, children in institutional settings
have been denied basic human rights protections against widespread abut, neglect,
and preventable death. And for too long, our government has

(21:04):
allowed this deceptive industry to operate in the shadows without
any real transparency or accountability. Fourteen years ago, Congress heard
testimony from federal investigators who found that quote staff hog
tied and shackle children too polls in public places, and

(21:25):
girls were forced to eat their own vomit if they
threw up while exercising in the hot sun. And in
another facility, staff routinely broke and wired shut the jaws
of kids who showed disrespect unquote. Anyone can recognize that
is not treatment, it's torture. Abuse in these facilities takes

(21:47):
many forms, including the inappropriate use of extended solitary confinement
as a punishment for a simple rule violation, showing disrespect,
or even for just expressing emotion. I know firsthand how
traumatizing solitary confinement can be a pro Volcanian school, I

(22:07):
was forced to take unprescribed sedative medications that made me
feel numb and helpless. When I questioned the staff about
why I had to take them, or refused. Men much
larger than me would grab me by my arms, dragged
me down the hall, and physically push me into that
four by four dirty cement room, just like the one
you see her today. As I fell to the ground,

(22:33):
i'd hear the door slam and the dead boat walked
from the outside. I can't tell you exactly how long
I stayed in that room because there was no windows
or clocks to gauge time, and I knew if I
screamed for help or protested, I would be in there
longer or be injected with a sedative. So I learned
to sit still on the floor with my knees, crouched

(22:54):
my chest and cry as quietly as I could to
not aggravate the staff and desperate really wait for my release.
That is just one experience that I share with you today.
It's still so difficult for me to speak about all
the extremely painful, physical, emotional, and even sexual abuse out loud,

(23:16):
which I'm not ready to discuss verbally, but its detailed
in my USA today off Edd that just came out
this morning. This abuse has led to years of trauma
induced insomnia complex PTSD that I and countless other survivors
of institutional abuse struggle with to this day. For too long,

(23:39):
countless reports of institutional child abuse have been met with
inexcusable in action by our government. Survivors are here this
week to continue the process of educating lawmakers, but about
just how badly children in the troubled TEENA industry are treated.
I'm hopeful once you hear these stories that you cannot

(24:00):
and hear them, and I expect Congress to take the
long awaited action they know this problem exists. No more
sweeping this human rights issue crisis under the rug. Our
job is to raise awareness by sharing our experiences with abuse, neglect,
and even death of a loved one. Our legislator's job

(24:20):
is to enact policy that addresses the solution. I don't
believe there is such a thing as in action. We
will work for broad bipartisan support of the Stop Institutional
Child Abuse Act to make sure it passes and becomes law.
We're not playing politics with children's lives. So on behalf
of millions of institutional abuse survivors. I say to President Biden,

(24:44):
to Senate Majority and Minority Leaders Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell,
to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and to House Minority Leader
Kevin McCarthy. The next generation of America is counting on you.
We will not give up. Thank you. This is Paris.

(25:16):
I just want to thank everyone for coming today. This
is such an important issue and something that's very personal
to me and closed my heart because it's a lived experience.
UM when I was sixteen years old, I was taken
in the middle of the night by two large men.
I had no idea who they were. I thought I

(25:38):
was being kidnapped, and they held up handcuffs. He said,
do you want to go the easy way or the
hard way? And I found out later that's what they
called the transport system, and it's one of the ways
so that the parents don't see the facilities where they're
dropping off their children. So from there I went to

(26:00):
three facilities and then went to pro Volcanian School. And
that was the worst eleven months of my life. I
wasn't allowed outside, I didn't breathe fresh air or see sunlight.
I was locked in solitary confinement for refusing to take
medication that I wasn't prescribed. I had never taken prescription

(26:23):
medication in my life. And they would do this to
all the children and force and on us and if
you wouldn't comply, he would be punished. I was strip
searched all the time. They would do this to the
girls just for no reason. Um. Every time I would
take a shower or use the restroom. Sorry I'm shaking, Um,

(26:45):
there would be male and female staff watching and saying
really inappropriate and sexual comments to me. And as a
sixteen year old child, it was just terrifying, seally late
at night when they would come into our rooms. Um,
it was like a living nightmare. Just every day, being

(27:10):
screamed at, yelled at silence, not allowed to speak, literally
putting us on chairs, staring against a wall, and if
you even got tired or just slumped your shoulders down
for one minute, they would immediately come and hit you
in the back of the head and start your time
all over again. And I'd probably spent six months staring

(27:30):
at a wall. Had no education. We were fed food
that people would not even feed to a dog, literally
expired food. We the sexual abuse that was happening, the
psychological torture, emotional abuse. The only therapy that I received

(27:56):
was called attack therapy, where they would take whatever was
your issue and have all of the children and other
students scream the most horrible things that you and the
therapists would do that as well, and and that was
something that has stayed with me forever and something that

(28:16):
I've had nightmares about since I'm sixteen years old. And
there's there's so much. I can literally probably be here
for the next week telling you about everything. But this
is what's happening in these places, and it's it's still
happening today. And it took me twenty years to even
say it out loud because I was so terrified and

(28:38):
so ashamed. And this is what they really be into
my mind, and this is what they do to everyone.
And that's why they've gotten away with this for so long,
because they tell you, no one's going to believe you.
You're a troubled kid. That's they say to everyone. People
will think you're crazy. No one will believe you, or
if you would even try to say anything, and you're

(29:00):
cut off from the outside world. You can't tell your
family anything. They're monitoring every call. If you say one
negative thing, they will immediately grab the phone, take away
your privileges you. There's just no way it out and do.
For me, I didn't think anyone would ever believe me.
And it was so painful and traumatic that I had
kept it in for literally two decades. And ever since

(29:23):
I've told my story, I it's just been the most
healing experience of my life. And I didn't think that
people really have understood me. But I'm meeting so many
people who have been through the same thing, and I
love you all, and everyone is so strong, and that's
why I'm here, and I'm not going to stop fighting
until change is made, and I hope that people will

(29:45):
do the right thing. Thank you, thank you, and I'm
thank you so much. I was at pro Volcanian School
for eleven months. I just wanted people to have that
in their hands and please tell us your story and

(30:06):
what happened to you. Obviously, what's been happening since the
nineteen sixties, these people have literally been getting away with murder.
Hundreds of children have died there's since so there's literally
probably millions of people who have been through this, who
have been emotionally scarred. That the children are a future,

(30:30):
and for children to go to these places, there's children
who maybe their their father or mother passed away and
an innocent child is being put in this place and
being traumatized for nothing, and this is happening all the time,
and I it just blows my mind that this is
still happening today. And that's why there needs to be

(30:50):
oversight and regulations and rules. People need to be held
accountable for their actions. They need to know that people
are watching, that they can't get a way with this
any longer. They need to know that the children that
they have used today will be the ones that will
help take them down tomorrow. And that's something that I
am going to keep fighting for. Like I said, and

(31:13):
I really hope that everyone could really look at this
and see these are basic human rights. The right to
not be abused, the right to be able to speak
to your family, the right to be able to not
be sedated and restrained, the right to just be treated
like a human. Like just it's like where is humanity?

(31:38):
I just I don't see it in these places. And
that's why there needs to be laws, and this legislation
is this is a mental health crisis, this is a
human rights crisis. And that's exactly why. Thank you for that,

(31:58):
And you want today so what was yours? Because what
do you want to tell those stats? I want to
thank everyone again. Please talk to your bosses, have you
guys work with explain the situation. This is really happening

(32:20):
and we just have to do the right thing. And
I just I hope that everyone in here really can
feel and see what's happening. And thank you guys for
telling your stories. I know it's hard even me up
here right now. I'm getting so shy and nervous. I know,
I think just from being at those places, it's made

(32:42):
me very i may look like I'm not shy, but
I'm actually very insecure because of what they did to me.
And I don't just don't want any other children to
feel the way that I do, and so many others do.
Thanks for listening to This Is Paris. You love hearing
from you, so leave us a review, Send an email

(33:03):
to Paris at I heart radio dot com, leave a
voicemail at eight three three eighty seven Paris, and follow
us at This is Paris Podcast by Day, Follow Paris
at Paris Hilton, and follow Hunter March hosted E's Nightly
Bob at Hunter March