Two state lawmakers want Florida to officially apologize for widespread abuses at the infamous Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys in Marianna.
Rep. Tracie Davis, D-Jacksonville, and Sen. Darryl Rouson, D-St. Petersburg have teamed up for joint legislation to require Florida to condemn the horrors that took place during the school’s 111-year history. Davis and Rouson filed the bills this week.
The legislation, HB 1335/SR 1440 would require the state to recognize the “cruel and unjust” treatment of boys at the school, as well as condemn the “violations of human decency” towards boys who were placed in state care.
“The survivors of abuses at the Dozier School have suffered horrible physical and psychological damages that have plagued them for their entire lives,” Davis said. “We must acknowledge and remember that this atrocious cruelty was the daily reality for many children and that the brutality they experienced has no place in our society.”
A group of former boys from the school, the White House Boys, have demanded an official apology from the state for the abuse at the school.
Rouson said the legislation was important to recognize and close an awful chapter in Florida history so Florida could move on.
“We must ensure tragedies like this never occur again within our state,” said Sen. Rouson.
Former boys at the school told Sunshine State News of children they knew who were flogged mercilessly, or kept in solitary confinement at Pierce Hall for months at a time, even though these practices were supposed to have ceased by the time they arrived on campus.
They told of one cottage father (as dorm supervisors were called) who would enter their cottage at night, set up a small desk at the bathroom entrance, and insist on watching the boys expose their nudity while they used the toilet.
Opened in 1900, the school was the country's largest reform institution. It closed in 2011.
In 2012, a group of anthropologists led by the University of South Florida began an excavation process on the school grounds, uncovering over 50 bodies at the school in unmarked graves. The USF report found a total of 100 deaths from 1900 to 1973. Two staff deaths were included in the total.
Last year, the Florida Legislature designated a task force to determine what, exactly, Florida should do with the bodies and what type of memorial should be created to remember the victims.
Ultimately, the task force decided to recommend to place the bodies in Tallahassee and create two memorials -- one in Tallahassee and one in Jackson County.
Reach reporter Allison Nielsen by email at allison@sunshinestatenews.com or follow her on Twitter: @AllisonNielsen.
