Column: Paris Hilton came to talk about ‘abuse disguised as therapy.’ We both teared up

SACRAMENTO —  Hello and happy Tuesday. There are 202 days until the election and today we are #slivingforacause with Paris Hilton at the Capitol.

For those of you over the age of 25 — which, let’s be real, is every person who has ever read a political newsletter — you can be forgiven for not knowing what “sliving” is.

But that’s Hilton’s newest personal catchphrase — joining “that’s hot.” It’s a mash-up of “ ‘slaying’ and ‘killing it’ while ‘living your best life,’ ” according to this explainer from the Independent.

Because I too had to look it up. But now we’re using it in the newsletter.

‘Sliving’ for kids

Fresh off the slide at Coachella, Hilton was definitely slaying and killing it during her visit to Sacramento on Monday, with a modest black-and-white blouse buttoned to her neck and the kind of blond highlights that shimmer with wealth.

Please do not pretend you didn’t want to know what she was wearing.

The heiress was here supporting the Accountability in Children’s Treatment bill, also known as SB 1043.

And if speaking your truth is “sliving,” then Hilton nailed it. Folks, I shed a tear and so did she. No mascara was harmed.

At 17, Hilton was locked up in a treatment facility — you may know from her documentary — where she was physically and emotionally abused, subjected to restraints and seclusion. Her parents were not informed, Hilton told the group gathered at the Capitol, leaving her alone in “a nightmare that no child should ever have to endure.”

It was, she said, “abuse disguised as therapy,” and until about four years ago, she didn’t talk about it.

Now it’s become a mission. She’s after abusers who pose as helpers, and I would not get in her way.

The girl hawking sloppy burgers while washing a car has grown into a woman of substance who understands her worth as a political advocate.

She’s working on federal legislation around transparency in treatment facilities, and has helped eight states pass bills. Last week, she rushed to Jamaica to support American boys who were removed from a teen facility for alleged abuse.

“I will find you and I will come with my huge spotlight,” she warned. “I will fight until every child is safe.”

Dignity and transparency

That’s good news for state Sen. Shannon Grove (R-Bakersfield), who authored the bill. Because the Capitol loves a celebrity — as evidenced by an abundance of young women in bright pink blazers milling the hallways hoping for a glimpse.

Grove’s bill would force youth treatment facilities licensed by the California Department of Social Services to be more transparent when they physically restrain kids or put them in so-called seclusion, which is similar to solitary confinement but by a kinder name.

The bill would make those facilities — the kind where troubled kids, often those from foster care, are sent — report the seclusion or restraint to the child’s guardian or parent, as well as require the state to have a public dashboard that shows how often each facility uses such measures.

Some of you are now saying, “Wait, wut? They restrain kids?” Yep.

Sometimes in ways that can be fatal when done incorrectly. Oftentimes in ways that leave kids feeling traumatized. Too often, as in Hilton’s case, facilities aren’t clear with parents or legal guardians about what they are doing in the name of therapy.

Don’t get me wrong. These facilities often deal with very troubled children — ones who have been through tremendous sexual and physical abuse and may have significant behavioral issues.

Which, Grove points out, makes it all the more important they are treated with dignity and transparency.

I can’t breathe

Survivor Zoe Scriber, also speaking at the Capitol, described her trauma at being held face down in a mud puddle for nearly five hours by six adults as part of her so-called help.

That punishment took place in the first few days of her placement in a teen treatment center, she said — for refusing to eat a pat of butter.

She will never forget, she said, “the knee on my shoulder, the cold of my soaked clothes, the eventual numbness in my legs, and my pleas of ‘I can’t breathe.’”

It stripped her, she said, of her dignity, autonomy and hope.

California should absolutely require the simple protections that this bill offers. But it comes with a cost because it requires a state agency to collect and make public data.

In a year with a deficit, that might be a problem. That’s where Hilton’s power may really play a role.

It’s one thing to crush a bill by a Republican senator. It’s another to tell Paris Hilton and her 16.4 million folowers on X (formerly and always to me Twitter) that California is too cheap to protect kids from abuse.

What, I asked Hilton, would you say to the governor if signing or vetoing this measure came down to cost?

“This is children’s lives at stake.”

Ouch.

Take the wins

The bill is important, but what makes it even more interesting is that it belongs to a Republican but is supported by Democrats, a rare bit of bipartisanship in a world dominated by ruthless divisions.

Grove, the bill’s author, is as red as they come, in a Legislature that is deep-ocean blue. She is, as one person described her, a gun-toting grandma from the Central Valley. By her own admission, she spent time in juvenile hall.

“We could probably compare stories,” she said gesturing at Hilton. “I was a pretty bad kid.”

Most of the time, Republican bills get killed before they even make it out of committee. I am guessing half the time the Dems haven’t even read them all the way through before they vote no.

But Grove has a somewhat unique ability to get her Democratic colleagues on board, especially around bills that focus on vulnerable women and kids, said Sen. Angelique Ashby (D-Sacramento), a co-author on SB 1043.

“She’s just focused more on people than politics, so I think that helps her out a lot,” Ashby told me.

As Sen. Aisha Wahab (D-Hayward), a left-of-left Democrat and also the first Afghan American to serve in the Legislature, quipped: So what does an heiress, a Republican, a single mom and a former foster kid have in common?

“Well, we want to protect children, regardless of background.”

Still, folks — Hilton, Grove, Ashby and Wahab (among others) sharing a stage — much less a bill — is as weird as it gets.

But it’s is a welcome bit of partisanship and get-it-done sisterhood in another week of screaming discord across the nation.

“I am so proud that I flew down here and came to support this bill today,” she told me before leaving. It’s been an emotional day but very impactful.”

That’s sliving.

What else you should be reading

The must-read (or listen): How’s Michael Cohen preparing for his moment in the spotlight? We sat down with him to find out.
The “Only in America”: They quit liberal public schools. Now they teach kids to be anti-”woke.”
The L.A. Times Special: California housing crisis so bad once-modest towns have become “million-dollar cities.”

Stay Golden,
Anita Chabria

P.S.: Coachella Fashion. You know you want to look.

Brenda Ramirez, 33, of Chula Vista, at Coachella on Friday.

(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

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