Exclusive | Paris Hilton backs survivors suing hellish NY boarding school over alleged child abuse

Paris Hilton is standing with 34 former students of a hellish Upstate New York boarding school who are suing the institution and its “network of beneficiaries” for the horrific abuse they allegedly endured as children.The Family Foundation School was located on an isolated 158-acre campus in Hancock in the Catskill Mountains and operated from 1984 until it shuttered in 2014 amid allegations of systemic abuse at the hands of administrators and staff, including sexual assault, strip searches, being told to dig their own graves and forced to eat their own vomit, according the lawsuits filed by accusers. On Nov.4, a federal judge in Binghamton is set to hear testimony from several survivors of the school, who are expected to recount the abuse they allegedly endured.Hilton, 45, has become an outspoken advocate for survivors of the troubled-teen industry after revealing the abuse she says she suffered as a teenager at Utah’s Provo Canyon School.“I stand with the survivors of Family Foundation School as they seek justice and work to hold accountable those who abused them, along with every institution and individual that enabled or profited from that abuse,” Hilton said in a statement shared with The Post.“No child should ever be harmed in the name of treatment.

I hope this lawsuit helps bring the accountability these survivors deserve and sends a clear message that those who exploit or abuse children cannot escape responsibility.”The law firm leading the lawsuits, Johannesen & Umana, anticipates at least 50 lawsuits being filed against the school and its partners.“Learning that their abuse generated profit is what showed our clients they had not simply been abused but were victims of labor and sex trafficking,” attorney Elizabeth Johannesen said. In 2025, a former teacher at the disgraced school, Paul Geer, was sentenced to 27 years behind bars for two counts of coercing and enticing two children to travel across state lines to engage in unlawful s...