Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - PRICEY BOARDING SCHOOL ABUSES KIDS, SAYS PARIS HILTON - VICTIMS TALK TO NANCY

Episode Date: February 19, 2021

Paris Hilton's emotional testimony to Utah politicians is bringing the state's "troubled teen industry" into the spotlight. With over 100 residential facilities in the state, it is a multi-million dollar business in Utah alone. Hilton testified that she was sent to three centers including Provo Canyon School, and was repeatedly abused.A statement on the school's webpage states, "We are aware of media referencing Provo Canyon School. Please note that PCS was sold by its previous ownership in August 2000. We therefore cannot comment on the operations or patient experience prior to that time."Read the full statement hereJoining Nancy Grace today: Jeremy Whiteley - Victim; attended Provo Canyon Chris Hooker - Father of Trevor Hooker, who died of suicide shortly after leaving Provo Canyon School Summer de Almedia - Victim; attended Provo Canyon School Domenic Romano - NY Corporate Lawyer and Entertainment Attorney, Romano Law www.romanolaw.com Dr. Bethany Marshall - Psychoanalyst, www.drbethanymarshall.com, New Netflix show: 'Bling Empire'  Dan Scott - Retired Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Sergeant, 26 years with Special Victims Bureau Specializing in Child Abuse Connor Richards - Government Reporter, Provo Daily Herald, Twitter: @crichards1995 Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Everybody has heard the name Paris Hilton, descendant of the famous Conrad Hilton, the founder of Hilton Hotels. Maybe you've heard of her not necessarily because of Hilton Hotels, but from various debacles in the press. But seemingly, Paris Hilton has turned the corner just recently, engaged a bright life in front of her. But now we are hearing what she says is the truth about being abused and tortured. She's not the only one claiming this. Is there strength in numbers? And numbers.

Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. By now, you probably think you've seen everything from and about Paris Hilton. You know, the socialite who made a career out of being a dumb blonde. A reality TV star famous for being famous. A Barbie doll voice with nothing to say. What is Walmart? That persona, she now says, was all an act. Is it like they sell wall stuff? No. What is it?

It's like a... What do you think the difference is between that character that you created and the real Paris? There's so many differences. With the character, it's mostly kind of this blonde, bubbly, kind of Barbie airhead. And in real life, kind of Barbie airhead.

And in real life, I'm the exact opposite. You know, the same thing has been said about female stars since the beginning of female stars. I mean, look back, for Pete's sake, how Marilyn Monroe was mocked as being an airhead. Britney Spears, it just, I mean, you can name them off the top of your head. Pam Anderson, it goes on and on and on. Well, while everyone is hating on them, they're laughing all the way to the bank. But Paris Hilton has shown a very different side in a very disturbing context.

Take a listen to Tracy Smith again at CBS Sunday Morning. When I got out, I was just so grateful and so happy to be free that I just didn't even want to bring it up. I was like, I'd rather, you know, just never talk about this. Just don't think about it. And from the moment I stepped out of that building is when I decided I'm never telling this story to anyone ever. You thought you'd never tell it? No.

And I didn't think they would believe me because even hearing myself talk about it, it's just, it sounds impossible to believe. After she left the school, Paris Hilton says she tried her best to forget it. She was a fixture at every high-profile event, and she got famous for all the wrong reasons, like a 2003 sex tape scandal that made headlines. You know, can we have one report about a woman and not bring up her sex history?

Just once, surprise me. You know, when you talk about men, you don't really hear about her sex history. Just once surprised me. You know, when you talk about men, you don't really hear about their sex history. Or if you do, they're playing the field. But never miss a chance to bring up something that can embarrass a woman. You know what? That's a whole other can of worms.

What I want to talk about is the Provo Canyon School. And before you judge Paris Hilton, there are other people coming forward about not only this school, but other schools all across the country, a multi-million dollar industry making their millions of troubled teens. With me, an all-star panel.

First of all, Jeremy Whiteley, a victim who actually attended Provo Canyon School. Chris Hooker, he is the father of Trevor Hooker, who died of suicide shortly after leaving Provo Canyon School. Summer Dalmeta. A victim who attended Provo Canyon School. Dominic Romano. New York lawyer. Entertainment specialist. You can find him at romanolaw.com. Thank you for joining us from New York.

Joining us from LA. Psychoanalyst to the stars. Dr. Bethany Marshall. Star of a new Netflix hit, Bling Empire. And you can find her at Bethany Marshall, drbethanymarshall.com. Dan Scott, former L.A. County Sheriff Sergeant, 26 years, Special Victims Bureau, specializing in abuse on teens and children. But first, to Connor Richards, reporter, Provo Daily Herald.

Connor, what is happening? Don't people spend thousands and thousands of dollars to get their children, their teens, into Provo Canyon? Yeah, Nancy, they do. Utah is definitely known for this, for these residential treatment centers. It's a very lucrative and high demand industry within the

state. So, you know, kids will come from all out of state or from states from all around the country. And so Paris Hilton, when she put out a documentary last year, she brought a lot of attention to this. She also formed a protest in Provo last year to protest the school. And so that really, you know, got attention of local media. And then also it seemed to enable or encourage a lot of people to come forward with their own stories. And so it really, by her speaking up on this, it really allowed people to come out and brought attention to see how, you know, kind of systemic or widespread this really is. But what is it about Provo Canyon School that has Paris Hilton and others complaining? Take a listen to our friends at CBS Sunday Morning. In 1998, then 17-year-old Paris wound up at the Provo Canyon School in Utah, a place for treatment of young people with mental and behavioral challenges.

There's no getting out of there. But in her film, This is Paris, she describes the place as more of a prison camp with solitary confinement and physical abuse. So they made an example of you. And they would choke you? No. And hit you? Yes.

It's so weird to think now because I buried this for so long with my emotions. So now to think about it, what happened, to Dr. Bethany Marshall, psychoanalyst joining us. Dr. Bethany, I'm just a trial lawyer. You're the shrink. But I have dealt with so many rape victims, sodomy victims, abuse victims, beating victims that really do not want to talk about it. And I don't necessarily want to dredge this up, but I remember after my fiance's murder, I did not want to talk about it. I still don't like talking about it. I just don't want to talk about it. I don't want to relive it. So this is not uncommon. No, because Nancy, being a victim is associated usually with incredible feelings of shame. Most victims cannot distinguish the fact that it was all of the perpetrator's fault. Victims tend

to take all of the wrongdoings of the perpetrator into the self and to blame themselves. They tell themselves things like, if I wasn't in that one place, this wouldn't have happened. If I wasn't nice to that guy, he wouldn't have raped me. Well, I did stay on the phone with him 15 minutes longer. So, you know, maybe I let him on, you know, from the time we're little and our parents maybe have a bad day and we never say to ourselves, oh, mommy had a bad day. We say, well, what's wrong with us? That's mommy's mad. What's wrong with me? And victims do that on steroids. What's wrong with me that this bad thing happened? So of course, they do not want to come forward. It's usually an act of extreme bravery when they tell their story.

I want to go out to some very special guests in addition to Connor Richards, Dan Scott, Bethany Marshall, and Dominic Romano. I want to go first to Jeremy Whiteley, victim who attended Provo Canyon. Jeremy, I still don't understand what's happening behind those closed walls at Provo Canyon. A lot. And, you know, in my case, you know, I wasn't, I was 15. I wasn't getting along with my parents I went they sent me to a therapist and a therapist suggested I go to this boarding school and to me I was shown advertisements for it a VHS video um a brochure and I looked like tons of fun and I could do I could do all this fun stuff in Utah all the outdoor recreation and so I wanted to. I asked my parents to send me there. I mean, what 15 year old wouldn't wanna get away

from their parents for a while and go to boarding school? So I went. And quickly when I got there, it was nothing like these brochures described it. I mean, there was so much abuse. I wrote my parents and I wrote them letters. And, you know, after Paris' documentary aired, I finally talked to them about it, and I found out they never even got me letters.

There was no way for any of us students there to reach out to law enforcement, to social workers, or to anyone to tell them to talk about the abuse that we witnessed. You know, I saw 300 pounds tackling, you know, kids that weigh, you know, 130 pounds. You know, it's, it was very frustrating. And we couldn't speak out. And if we did speak out, we got in a lot of trouble for it. So we just, you know, kept our silence. There was really nothing that we can do. And there was no laws in Utah that protect us. crime stories with nancy grace paris hilton uh one of the heirs to the hilton legacy as in hilton hotels and so much more is coming forward about what she says was plain out abuse at a really fancy, very expensive boarding school called

Provo Canyon. Now, many people just are chalking it off as another publicity stunt. I'm not so sure. In fact, I'm not sure at all. With me is Jeremy Whiteley, who also attended Provo Canyon, whose detailing abuse he suffered there. Letters he wrote to his parents begging for help that they say they never got. Who? Am I not going to believe Jeremy Whiteley, plus his parents, plus

Paris Hilton? Are they all lying to me? That's really hard for me to believe. Chris Hooker, the father of Trevor, who committed suicide after Provo, and Summer Dalmeda, who also attended Provo Canyon. Bethany, I think you want to jump in. Yes, here's what happens with these schools. A lot of times, these children, young people who are sent to these schools have some mild behavioral problems in high school. And the deans or the principals of their school label them as schizophrenic or bipolar or troubled,

and the school doesn't want to deal with it. So they say to the parents, you better send your child to the special camp. Once the child is sent to a school away from the parents and they're caught off from support, they're labeled with very serious psychiatric issues. And that's how the staff at these abusive schools begins to drive a wedge between the students who have enrolled in these abusive institutions and the families who love and support their kids. So if, for instance, Jeremy might have gotten a hold of his parents and said, you know, I don't like the way my staff is treating me, then the staff calls and says, well, you know, he has behavioral problems. So the child can't win.

I see. I want to go to Summer Dalmeta, also a student at Provo Canyon School. Summer, what happened? So I was at Provo when I was 13. I was the youngest girl there. Wow, that's awfully young to be. I mean, we didn't have the money for boarding school, number one. But I can't imagine.

My twins, Summer, are just turned 13. I can't imagine them growing up without me there to help them. Maybe I'm overestimating helping them, but why were you sent away at age 13? I was definitely having some behavioral issues. I was very defiant when it came to my mom's rules. I was struggling with anxiety and depression. And, you know, I feel like at that time, that wasn't really something that people talked about. No one really talked about mental health back then. And I just didn't really know what was going on with me. And I just kind of always felt this need to be doing something, to be doing something to, to be out, to be around someone. I couldn't just be at home by myself and I was running away.

And, you know, of course those things were scaring my mom to death and she didn't know what to do. And she was either told about or found out about Provo Canyon School. And very similar to what Jeremy said, I was showed a pamphlet. And to me, it looked like, you know, a boarding school where you were getting therapy and doing outdoor activities and going to this great school. And, yeah, I learned very, very fast that that was not going to be how this was going to go. What happened when you got there when i got there so i was driven from california to utah in the middle of the night by two strangers and what do you mean how did you get in the car with two strangers how'd that happen so uh my mom did let me know that there were going to be transporters that were going to

be taking me taking me um so she was there theyporters that were going to be taking me. So she was there. They put me in the car and they took me off to Utah and they brought me to the lobby. And I just remember I was greeted by a male staff named Danny and he took me up to the top floor. And the first thing that they said to me was was you're going to need to be strip searched and so they took me to this room and it was a room filled with about five or six staff in there and yeah I had to remove all my clothes and I thought that was just kind of going to be it. Were they female staffers? They were female staff, but there were, and I don't know why there were so many of them in there for one person. They had to thoroughly examine my body. They asked me to, sorry, to do very strange things. While I was naked, they asked me to bend over, touch my toes. I had to spread everything apart. I was told to squat and to cough,

and they had me do that repeatedly for a few minutes while the staff members laughed and made jokes. So, yeah, that was my welcoming experience into Provo. And this is at age 13? Yes, I had just turned 13 about two months before. Go ahead. The same thing happened to me. And all the other stories I hear from survivors since my time there, it seems to me like it's gotten worse and worse. And all our stories are very similar. And this is going over decades, not just from when I left or from when Paris was there. It just seems like it's, I hear the stories of students that have been there in the last five to 10 years and it's much worse than what I personally experienced from my time there. And it's very sad. Yeah. Joining me is John Pan.

This is Sergeant Scott, retired Sergeant Scott Dan. This sounds more like a juvenile hall than a boarding school. These kids are treated as if they're going into jail. I mean, yes, they have to do strip searches in jail, but these 13 year old girls at a boarding school and then they all have troubles. And their most troubled kids are labeled as liars. We run into this in abuse cases all the time, where abuse carries on for years. The kids start acting out, getting into trouble, using drugs, running away, and then when they finally disclose, nobody believes them. Here we have multiple victims coming forward and reporting this. There's obviously a lack of professional supervision going on. Well, I know what they're going to say, Dan Scott.

Guys, 26 years Special Victims Bureau specializing in teen and child abuse, the school would say that that was their way of making sure the students, the incoming students weren't secreting in drugs by sticking them in a body cavity. That's what they're going to say. Do I agree with it? No, because even in jailhouse situations, you don't have a peanut gallery standing around when a 13 year old girl strips down and squats. All right. That's not the way it works that I know of. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. To Chris Hooker joining us, the father of Trevor Hooker.

Trevor passed away shortly after leaving Provo Canyon School. Mr. Hooker, first of all, you know, I thought I knew it all about suffering after my fiance was murdered. But now that I have John David and Lucy, my 13 year olds, I just admire you so much getting through what happened with Trevor and now getting the strength, summoning the strength to speak out. I want to hear your thoughts on this controversy. Well, when Trevor had been there one time, he said it was a bad experience.

He had been there 45 days. They released him. He came home to what I thought was a better state, and things started happening at home, different behaviors than he ever had before. Some stuff happened at the house, and he couldn't be there because of behavioral issues, and they couldn't get him in anywhere.

And we were told that, you know, our counselor here in Montana wouldn't recommend provo canyon again because they thought that we were trying to just get rid of them um my his mother's maternal mother actually had stopped by provo on the on a disneyland vacation because he was sitting in a juvenile hall in great falls montana and talked to him and they took him um they took him in. He was there for a year and a half the last time. When Trevor was there, he constantly reported that he was left in a room for days with them. Basically, they just would leave him, feed him, let him out, made him pee in the jug.

Tackled by staff constantly, which was always denied. It was always his fault. I asked them to view cameras. Every time it happened, it was somewhere where there wasn't cameras. And then when he came out of there, we, and when we would be talking to him, there'd be kids getting threat, threatening him while he was talking on

the phone they wouldn't do anything about that we actually heard staff threatening kids one time called up the supervisor took like three days to do anything you know to get back with us and said that he didn't think his staff was capable of that he was medicated and put in confinement which is which is wasn't part of his I believe contract and we were never aware of it until we found out about it and confronted them then they admitted yeah I don't know how it slipped through the cracks that we medicated him when Trevor went there he had never had an issue of anything. And when he returned home about a week before they, he returned home, they, um,

they told us that he had a bedwetting problem, which he never had before. So he was in adult diapers and blamed it on a medications. His maternal mother is a, um, nurse practitioner and deals with medications. She's in the psychology part of it. Looked up all of his medications, and none of them had a side effect of bedwetting. And, you know, he used to, when he got home, he told me, he told me that he had lots of nightmares about that place,

about the way he was treated, how staff let kids pick on him, staff picked on him. And he got into a little bit of trouble when he got home, nothing major, but a week later he took his life. I think he thought he was going to end up back there. It's just a really bad situation. I mean, and you know, some of the stuff that he, that I heard, I thought that, you know, there was a good possibility that, you know,

like, like I said earlier, you know, is he making this stuff up to try to get out of there? And now I don't really think he was. I mean, some of the stuff I've read on this and what I've heard here, I really don't think there was anything ever going on like that at all. Or I think that it was going on. I don't think he was trying to use excuses to get out of there. Mr. Hooker, when you hear Jeremy Whiteley and Summer Dalmeta, Paris Hilton and and others speaking, what goes through your mind? My poor boy.

Sorry. My poor kid. I feel like I put him in hell. And that was the last year and a half of his life, or it was about a year and three months, or no, it was about a year and a half. I put him somewhere where he was just treated and inhumanely and that's that's I feel like that's his last you know his last two years 18 months of that was because because I couldn't handle my kid I feel like like I just, you know, I doomed him. That's what I feel like every single time.

Mr. Hooker, in those moments when you're not bedeviled with grief, you do know that you believed what was in the pamphlets. You believed the VHS video. You believed what they told you, and you were trying to the best of your ability to do what's right for your boy. You do know that in the moments when you're thinking clearly, right? Yeah.

Yeah, no, and I do know know that I was trying to get him you know he had he'd had he he was born with problems and you know we always did the best we could I mean I went through a lot of not being able to work and stuff because of his behavioral issues and and I always was steadfast through it it just as, as he got older, it was harder to handle. You know, Mr. Hooker, when I talk to my children, you know, I think that I've done so much, do everything in my power to take care of them

and make them happy and do what's best for them to hear them tell it. Mom, do you remember when you did this and you did that and you said this and you said, and it's just hard to look back and think that you've made a mistake, but you have to keep

your compass on and know that you're doing everything you can to the best that you can. I mean, to you, Dominic Romano, who's waited so kindly, renowned New York lawyer, entertainment attorney, you can find him at romanolaw.com. What can be done if this behavior is real at Provo Canyon? And they have denied it vehemently and issued one statement after the next. But I'm hearing Jeremy. I'm hearing Mr. Hooker. I'm hearing Summer. I'm hearing Paris Hilton.

If this is true, what can be done to stop it? Dominic? The allegations are just shocking. And if you look at the pattern and practice of these allegations, it's not just one, two, three. It's an army of students. And it's not just Provo Canyon School. There are documented cases in Missouri and other parts of the country at some of these, you know, alleged reform institutions. There are multiple allegations across multiple states. There has to be oversight. You know, Paris Hilton testified at

the Senate committee in Utah recently, about a week ago, that there's an absence of government oversight here at some of these youth residential treatment centers. And that has to stop. Well, hold on. I'm drinking the fire hydrant with you, Romano. You said there's an absence of what? Oversight. Government oversight. Why is that? I mean, all schools are to be regulated by the government, right? Unless you're being homeschooled. Even homeschooled children are supposed to be checked in on, and there should be reports

filed regarding their progress. How come these expensive parents scraping together the money to send their children to a place like Provo Canyon, it's not regulated? Dominic? Well, look, what Paris is alleging is that she was given unprescribed medication. How does that happen? You know, even 20 years ago, how is that allowed to happen? In Jeremy's case, he spoke earlier.

He said he wrote his parents multiple letters. They don't get the letters. How are parents prevented from communicating or receiving the communication of their children? What's going on? Yeah, I got a question on that, Jeremy Whiteley. Did your parents come to visit you? Did you try to tell them while they were there visiting, or were they disallowed to visit? Well, I mean, that's a very good point. You know, my first three months there, you have to you start out at a certain level and you over time you get more privileges. And to get to life for your parents to visit, you have to be doing good in the program. And, you know, I, I, I did, I did really well in, in the program of pro prokinin school. And, um, so I got a lot of privileges very quickly that other students

didn't get. Um, so my parents did come and visit, but I was, I mean, I got punished so hard for writing my parents and telling them about this abuse i mean i had to stand up against a wall for almost two weeks and i just never spoke of it you know i was just so grateful that my parents are coming to visit me and and the only way you could get out of there is by doing really well in the program and i did really well and what did you just say you stood up against a wall for two weeks? Yeah. They do these things called Ips.

Called what? Ips and investments. They put you in investment. And if you get in trouble, you have to stand up against a wall. And I've heard from other students it's kind of changed since I've been there. Yeah, so I never spoke of it. But I did so well that I was allowed to go back to a family reunion in New Hampshire after being there for, you know, almost 10 months.

And I just, I never spoke of it. And other kids that have spoken up or gone to law enforcement, law enforcement just turns a blind eye. It seems to me that the students feel like somehow it's their fault. And like other victims, they don't speak about it. Guys, take a listen to Al Thomas at KSTU speaking to another alum of Provo's Canyon, our Cut 6A. For many, this is the first time hearing about Provo Canyon School. I'm realizing more and more that I'm confronted with it every day. For people like Paris and

Jen Robison, it's haunting. The issues that occurred when Paris and I were there are still occurring today. Jen was admitted to PCS in 2003 for childhood trauma. Basically, they brought me in, they strip searched me in a utility closet, and soon after they shaved my head, they gave me a number. Little did she know, the facility would create trauma of its own. It's so abrupt and it's so frightening and it's so confusing that you're just like, well, this is my life now. Jen says she still has vivid memories of having to earn off-campus visits, alleged verbal and physical abuse, and isolation. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.

Guys, Paris Hilton is not just pulling a publicity stunt. She has actually gone to testify in front of Utah politicians. Take a listen to our cuts 1716. Children were restrained, hit, thrown into walls, strangled, and sexually abused regularly at Provo. I could not report this because all communication with my family was monitored and censored. And what is disgusting is the program doesn't just censor communication with family, but also with the entire outside world. So there was no way we could call for help. I tell my story not so that anyone feels bad for me,

but to shine a light on the reality of what happened then and is still happening now. The people who work at, run, and fund these programs should be ashamed of themselves. How can people live themselves knowing this abuse is happening? Talking about something so personal was and is still terrifying. I cannot go to sleep at night knowing that there are children that are enduring the same abuse that I and so many others went through, and neither should you. I am proof that money doesn't protect against abuse.

Straight out to Connor Richardson, reporter with the Provo Daily Herald. Connor, the so-called troubled teen industry is a multi-billion dollar industry. Why is it not being governed, apparently, in Utah? Yeah, well, that's the same question that Utah lawmakers are asking right now. So in that committee meeting, everyone there seemed to find Ms. Hilton's testimony very compelling. And yeah, a lot of the lawmakers on the committee asked that very same thing. They said, why in the world are these regulations or oversights not in place? And so, yeah, now they're considering a bill, it's Senate Bill 127, and it really would just put a lot more

oversight over these things. So for example, it would prohibit these strip and body cavity searches that we've heard about. It would prohibit use of medical sedation and things like that. And it would also just give the Utah licensing office some more tools to go in and investigate these things and help parents get a better understanding of what's actually going on in these schools while their kids are there. I want to go straight out. Who's that? I believe that's Jeremy. Yeah, I mean, people have come forward, you know, over the years. And it's just like Utah has a universal issue

of pretending things don't happen. And then they try to erase them. And then they silence those who blow the whistle. I mean, people have been coming forward about these problems, you know, at Provo Canyon School since I left in 1991 and further even back to when the school was founded. And, you know, Utah's lawmakers have not taken this seriously until Paris came forward. And I am so grateful to Paris and my classmates and and and all the other people who volunteer their time with Breaking Code Silence.

You know, it's about time they come forward and do something about it. And I also hope Mitt Romney will step up and make things right. I mean, you know what? Waiting on politicians to act. I don't know how that's going to work out. I think there needs to be, instead of hoping a politician will step in, as Jeremy is hoping, that that's why we have government officials. To you, Dominic Romano, and to Dan Scott, Romano, that's why we pay taxes. So things like this don't happen as a matter of fact it's not just Paris it's not just Jeremy or Mr. Hooker or Summer Dalmeta take a listen to our cut 13 Kat

Von D the TV personality also went to Provo Canyon listen to what she has to say they did a strip search which was completely degrading. I remember having to get naked in front of this person who I don't know if they had credentials. I had no idea who they were. And basically they were just just degrading me the whole entire time. And I, you know, I was 15 years old. I was still a f***head. And they put me into some hot pink sweats and gave me some sandals. And then they took me into another room and then shaved my head. Did that happen to Summer Dalmeda? Did girls have their heads shaved? Yep, 100%. I never did have my head shaved, but that seemed to be one of their favorite punishments there. I mean, a girl could speak out or maybe use a swear word and teach her a lesson. They would go and shave her head.

And they would put guys in pink sweats too. I mean, if you threatened to, if they had any reason to believe that you were going to run away or try and run away, they would put the guys in pink sweats too. I mean, I got put in pink sweats. Dan Scott, I don't get it. Why do we even have law enforcement? If these allegations, if they're true and the perps are hiding behind the walls of an exclusive

facility, why is that happening? That's a great question. I don't know Utah law, but most states have laws that pretty much throw out the statute of limitations on child abuse, allowing law enforcement to go in and investigate cases that are 20 and 30 years old. I've done it many times. We just saw it happen in a high profile case, R. Kelly. Remember that? That's something everybody can recall.

Dominic Romano, a New York lawyer. Why not? Why aren't those cases being reopened? Cases like Jeremy's, like Som Delmeta's, and others. Well, look, I looked it up. The school has been the subject of litigation throughout the years against previous ownership. And sometimes it takes the spotlight. It takes the megaphone of celebrity.

You know, Paris Jackson, Michael Jackson's daughter, also says that she suffered similar experiences of Paris Hilton at another boarding school. Sometimes it takes people, highly visible people, to speak out and find these other stories and ultimately get law enforcement, get the politicians, get the investigators in there and put a stop to this once and for all. I have two young daughters, and this is heartbreaking to hear. Can you even imagine? And the parents think they're doing a good thing, helping their child, and then they find out this. Can you imagine the guilt the parents carry around for the rest of their lives?

Guys, it's not just the victims you've met today. Take a listen to Jen in Cut 14. When I was 14, I was sent to a behavioral modification center in Utah. My parents were promised that I would be helped, but that's not exactly what happened. I was stripped of my clothes in the utility closet and given a number. My head was shaved, and some of the staff even took to calling me Auschwitz because of my appearance. I made the mistake one morning of saying that I didn't want to wake up. I was dragged out of the top bunk by staff and down a hallway by my feet. I was left

in isolation cell. To Mr. Hooker, the father of Trevor Hooker. Trevor passed away. I think that this needs to stop happening. My son's other kids were already suffering, going to a place like that. I mean, there was times where I didn't hear from Trevor for months, and they would tell me it was because of his behavior. And he would tell me in these experiences of his behavior. I mean, and then he would tell me about in these experiences, you know, about basically getting tackled by three or four staff. Trevor had behavioral issues, but he didn't deserve any of that. No.

I mean, getting tackled by, you know, three to four staff members. And mind you, these staff members are big. And if we talked to our parents, if we got to talk to our parents, our therapist was listening in to the phone call. And my entire time there, my therapist didn't even spend more than 15 minutes a week with me unless I had a phone call with my parents. To this day? I want to say something, too. Jump in. The calls. So for how it was for me, you would have like

a family therapy session once a week, you would be in the office with your therapist and then with your parent on the phone. And then afterwards you would get a 10 minute phone call alone with your parents, but you were always very strictly warned that the calls are recorded. And if you say anything or you try to manipulate your parents, or you put the place down in any way, there's going to be serious consequences, and your phone rights will be taken away. So it's like, I don't know, it was just very scary, you know, and tough having to talk to your parents and pretend that everything is totally fine and nothing bad is happening to you or anyone else and it was very

unfair guys i want you to hear spencer joseph go ahead dear you know and like i asked my parents after paris's documentary her documentary art i'm like what did the school tell you i was there and my mom said they were they were very vague they would just say that I wasn't doing very well, which was a total lie. I mean, I was almost at a 4.0 where I was there. I had the most privileges. You know, I was working off-site at a hotel, you know, making extra money, you know, and they were telling my parents the entire time that I wasn't doing very well. And they were very vague. And when my mom started asking questions and asking for specifics, the school wouldn't tell them. And that's when, you know, after finally 17 months, you know, they, my mom and dad were so suspicious that when they asked for specifics

they wouldn't give them so they pulled me out of there and then they told them that I was going to be involved in drugs and alcohol and I had no, up to that point I had no history of drugs or alcohol and to this day I don't have a drug or an alcohol problem and it's

and you know I'm hearing about you know I'm hearing this testimony from Chris, you know, about his son. And it's like he did everything. He thought he was doing the right thing. And I really hope my biggest message to him is, you know, don't blame yourself. You did everything that you possibly could. I know it must be so tortuous, Mr. Hooker, to hear that the cycle seemingly is continuing. Guys, the school insists none of this is true. But as I close to Connor Richardson joining me from Provo Daily Herald,

as I have said many, many times in the law, and it is peculiarly relative to you, Connor, the pen is mightier than the sword. We wait as justice unfolds. Nancy Grace, Crime Story, signing off. Goodbye, friend. and the sword. We wait as justice unfolds. Nancy Grace, Crime Story, signing off. Goodbye, friend. You're listening to an iHeart Podcast.