‘ABSOLUTE TERROR’
Paris Hilton horrified over abuse of American boys in troubled teen-housing programme
PARIS HILTON, media personality and prominent Children’s Rights Advocate from the United States (US), says she is outraged and horrified by allegations made by the eight American boys rescued from American-operated Atlantis Leadership Academy in St Elizabeth by the Child Protection and Family Services Agency (CPFSA).
She also called on the US Government to do more to protect children with human-rights and children’s-rights issues given what transpired with the eight American boys in the facility located in Jamaica, which is operated, staffed, and run by Americans.
“Hundreds of thousands of youth experience this horror today, and I am dedicated to eliminating child abuse and neglect in youth residential programmes,” said Hilton, who is in Jamaica to advocate and support the abused boys’ return to the US.
“These boys came into the world expecting love and nurturing but instead, have faced absolute terror,” Hilton told journalists at a press conference at Jack Sprat in Treasure Beach, St Elizabeth, yesterday.
BEATEN, WATERBOARDED
According to her, the boys were stripped naked, violently beaten, and waterboarded into subjection by abusive caregivers.
“The staff would take the cup of bleach and salt and rub it in the child’s wounds to torture them,” she said, referencing the allegations levelled against the American operators of Atlantis Leadership Academy.
The CPFSA last week disclosed that it intervened to ensure the safety of the boys aged 14 to 18, following an unannounced visit to the facility on February 8, along with representatives from the US Embassy in Kingston.
Hilton argued that the children were sent to Jamaica, only to be exposed to a life of abuse and isolation and forced to kneel on metal bottle caps for hours.
“Another child alleges he was placed in isolation, called ‘the Box’ at this facility, and was beaten with a cord,” Hilton said. “The boys also said they were forced to fight one another for the entertainment of the staff.”
Hilton said that she dropped everything to travel to Jamaica upon hearing that these boys had asked for her assistance.
“There is nowhere on Earth that I am unwilling to travel to support and advocate for youth who have experienced institutional child abuse and neglect. There is nowhere that a facility can hide where we cannot find them,” said Hilton, a fierce advocate for children’s rights.
She vowed never to allow these boys and other abused children to carry the shame and stigma of abuse alone, pointing out that abusers should be made to bear those burdens.
The media personality and businesswoman argued that the Atlantis Leadership Academy was a perfect example of the risks involved in placing youth abroad.
“Several of these boys were adopted and were promised better, more stable lives. One of these boys was even adopted into a former governor’s home in Kentucky. The life these children were promised has not been upheld,” Hilton continued.
Further, she revealed that besides Atlantis Leadership Academy, another such facility is located here in Jamaica, where the majority of the youth are American.
“Here in Jamaica there is another programme called YOVA, housing approximately 150 adopted youth. Staff from that facility has ties to Miracle Meadows in West Virginia that was recently closed and sued for torture, rape, and starvation of children,” revealed Hilton.
A GLOBAL ISSUE
Additionally, the children’s advocate stated that child abuse in these facilities is a global issue that requires systemic change and that American-owned programmes are currently operating and housing vulnerable American youth in Mexico, Samoa, Costa Rica, St Lucia, and many other locations around the world.
A team of US-based attorneys representing the abused boys accompanied Hilton to a court hearing, including a survivor who escaped a life of abuse while staying at Tranquility Bay, also in St Elizabeth, more than two decades ago.
Chelsea Maldonado, who survived food poisoning while being housed at Tranquility Bay under alleged extreme living conditions, said that the eight American boys were abused by their caregivers.
She told journalists that her father had given Tranquility Bay complete control over every aspect of her life.
“In 2001 when I was only 17 years old, I was forcefully brought to Treasure Beach by my father. He granted legal guardianship of me to Tranquility Bay,” she shared.
According to Maldonado, she was not allowed use of a telephone, “not even to call my father”.
“I was not allowed to look at windows without permission,” she reasoned, noting that for months, she was forced to live within the walls of that community listening to but unable to ever look at the sea.
“At nights I listen to the sound of my peers screaming as they were restrained and abused in a room called observation placement,” Maldonado recalled.
“I suffered from chronic food poisoning that was never treated. I slept on a plywood board that folded down from the wall,” she said.
However, the troubled teen industry survivor indicated that she was not sharing her story so that she could be pitied but rather to lend support to the abused American boys.
“I am sharing it because I can identify with and understand the allegations these boys have made. I believe them because I have been inside one of these facilities myself and I know what it feels like to not be believed. And how desperate it feels to be unheard and misunderstood.,” she added.