Kat Von D has joined Paris Hilton in calling out a school for troubled teens, saying she saw girls in straitjackets being injected with sedatives. Photos / Supplied
Celebrity tattoo artist Kat Von D has revealed she went to the same "tortuous, awful" school for troubled teens as Paris Hilton.
Von D said she was sent to the reform school at 15, after she started listening to punk music and getting tattoos, and was "kidnapped" in the middle of the night.
In an emotional Instagram video, Von D said after being taken blindfolded to Provo Canyon in Utah, she was strip-searched, had her head shaved, and was falsely told she had contracted HIV.
She said girls at the school were subjected to severe punishments including being injected with sedatives, put in straitjackets, forced to go to the bathroom in the drain, and made to stare at walls for days on end.
Von D said she felt "triggered" after watching Hilton's recent documentary, This Is Paris, where Hilton claimed she was "tortured" and staff were "physically abusive".
Hilton shared the video, saying she was "in tears" watching Von D.
"Bringing back even more of the horrible memories I have blocked out for so many years. I can relate to you in so many ways," Hilton said.
"It turns out that I went to the same school, I was sent to the same place," Von D said. "I was 15 when I was sent and I spent my 16th birthday in there, so I was there for a total of six months.
"And they were definitely the most traumatic six months of my life."
The LA Ink star said she was brought up in a "pretty conservative household" and when she started listening to punk music, and started to "look a little bit different" to other kids, it "raised a lot of red flags" for her parents.
"I think they were just terrified I was going down the wrong path," Von D said. "I'd started tattooing and dropped out of high school and I think they just didn't know what to do with me."
She said a family therapist recommended Provo Canyon. She was asleep in bed one night when two large men and an "athletic" woman came into her room and told her she was going with them.
"If I didn't do what they say, then I would have to choose the hard way, which was getting handcuffed," Von D said.
"I had no idea what was going on at the time, and obviously was terrified."
She said she was flown to Utah and put in a car blindfolded, before being driven somewhere without being told the location.
"Once we got there they did a strip search, which was completely degrading, I remember having to get naked in front of this person, I don't know their credentials. I have no idea who they were.
"And basically they were just degrading me the whole entire time."
"I was 15 years old. I was like a kid."
Von D said they then put her into a hot pink sweatsuit and sandals, took her into a room and shaved her head.
She said she was then shown documentation explaining where she was, and that her parents had "basically signed away my rights to this facility".
Von D said she felt like she had "nowhere to go", and said the school had "barely any windows". She said when you could see outside the few small windows, "all you saw was snow".
"Even if you did manage to escape somehow, which would be impossible, where would you go?"
She said she was told the minimum time you could spent at the school was three weeks.
"I had no idea it was gonna end up being six months being trapped in this pretty crazy just torturous, awful place."
Von D said she had her blood and stool samples taken, and a councillor later falsely told her she'd contracted HIV through a tattoo.
"I had no idea what to think, I didn't know how I was going to tell my parents. To even have the time to critically think that this was a lie, which it was."
Von D said the staff never told her she'd been lied to about having HIV.
"I went through those entire six months thinking I had HIV. And this was just a scare tactic to try and get me to stop tattooing."
She said that was just one of the things she endured at the Utah school.
"They had all kinds of odd forms of punishment. We were told we had to stand in line at all times, and if you need something you have to ask for it.
"If you need to adjust your clothes, you have to ask. If you need to cough, or sneeze, you have to ask."
She said girls were punished for breaking these rules by having to sit in chairs facing a blank wall for "hours on end".
"Some girls had been stuck staring at a wall for days", she said, adding she'd also been subjected to this. She said if the girls fell asleep or fell from their chair they'd be punished by having "points docked", or having their time at the school extended.
Von D said there was an "octagon or hexagon-shaped" room with a drain in the centre where girls who misbehaved would be taken and injected with sedatives "in their butt".
She said some girls were put in a straitjacket, while others were sedated to the point where they were almost "in a coma".
"Some of the girls were in there for days at a time, peeing on themselves and defecating in that drain," she said.
Provo Canyon School has a statement regarding the claims posted to its website.
"We are aware of media referencing Provo Canyon School," the statement reads. "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.
"We are committed to providing high-quality care to youth with special, and often complex, emotional, behavioural and psychiatric needs."
The school previously told Fox News in a statement: "Originally opened in 1971, Provo Canyon School was sold by its previous ownership in August 2000. We therefore cannot comment on the operations or patient experience prior to this time."
Von D said she doesn't blame her parents, saying she understands they may have felt "out of control".
She said while she was at the school she had no access to a phone and she believes if she was able to talk to her parents they would have "saved" her.
She said the few calls she could make were monitored by the school's staff.
Von D said she wasn't a victim of physical and sexual abuse at the school, described in Hilton's documentary, but said she witnessed it.
She said after six months she was eventually released into another school, where she struggled to function, and developed alcoholism.
She said she later realised she had Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Von D had since had therapy, which she said helped her, and has been sober for 13 years.
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