FL - White House Boys, Dozier School for Boys, Marianna

[wfgodot]

Horror as 19 unmarked graves found at Florida boys' reform school
where students were 'beaten with leather straps, raped and murdered' (Daily Mail)

• 31 white crosses at school cemetery - but 50 grave shafts found
• Scientists believe there is a second burial site and research continues
• Found a total of 96 children died at the school - but could be many more as records after the 1960s fall under privacy laws
• Dozier School for Boys opened as a reform school in 1900 but was closed in 2011 amid decades-long allegations of physical and sexual abuse

the story at the link

 

[Sleuthster]

Growing up in Florida I knew a few boys from my middle and high school that ended up there between 79-83. I remember them telling me stories of how bad it was there so it didn't get any better.

 

[csziggy]

I think what you saw was a re enactment of the horrors at the school at the end of film they show each "actors" picture

Maybe not - the Florida Industrial School for Boys at Marianna did not close until 2011.

The Florida School for Boys, also known as the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys, was a reform school operated by the state of Florida in the panhandle town of Marianna from January 1, 1900, to June 30, 2011.[1][2] A second campus was opened in the town of Okeechobee in 1955. Throughout its 111-year history, the school gained a notorious reputation for beatings, rapes, torture, and even killings perpetrated by staff on students. Despite periodic investigations, changes of leadership, and promises to improve, the allegations of cruelty and abuse continued until confirmed by separate investigations by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement in 2010 and the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice in 2011,[3] which prompted state authorities to close the school for good.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida_School_for_Boys

 

[Wolf Dreamer]

Pictures of the area here and video

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...marked-graves-Florida-boys-reform-school.html

 

[JaxFlaGal]

Here's a link to the interim report from the USF forensic anthropologists (released 12/10/12). Lots of background, but very troubling to read.
http://news.usf.edu/article/articlefiles/5042-boot-hill-cemetery-interim-report-12-12.pdf

 

[Sleuthster]

I remember that there was another "juvenile prison" my neighbor got sent to, it was in Okeechobee. He was also at the one in Marianna. Anyways, i googled it and found out that it's still open AND it was originally built and run by Dozier in 1955. Maybe they should be digging out there too. My neighbor "Tony" used to tell me horror stories about that place too. Shocks me that it was a Dozier boys facility too.

 

[JaxFlaGal]

Still no closure nor justice for some of these families from a news blog update posted today:

Secretary of State Ken Detzner sent a letter to USF officials Monday informing them that the permit they sought from the Bureau of Archeological Research, which is under the Department of State, has been denied.

The permit would have allowed researchers to exhume bodies found in gravesites located on the 1,400 acres that make up the now shuttered Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys in Marianna.

http://jacksonville.com/opinion/blo...5/state-researchers-cant-exhume-bodies-dozier

 

[JaxFlaGal]

Typical government runaround. Mystery of the day: Which Florida goverment department actually does have the jurisdiction to grant the exhumation request.

"At this point, it's starting to look like a classic run around," said U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson. "This is state-owned land, it's the state's responsibility and the state of Florida needs to do the right thing and not pass the buck."

from http://www.tampabay.com/news/humani...-grant-permit-to-dig-up-dozier-graves/2131624

 

[JaxFlaGal]

More here: http://tbo.com/news/education/no-ex...-school-fla-secretary-of-state-says-20130715/

[Florida Secretary of State Ken] Detzner said disinterment of bodies is allowed in very narrow circumstances such as a criminal investigation. The Dozier investigation has not yet risen to that level, but on Monday, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Pam Bondi told the Associated Press that the office continues to support the effort at Dozier.

There is little documentation about the cemetery on the school grounds and who is buried there. The USF researchers successfully sought a permit to perform surface-level research to determine the location of grave sites.

Their work contradicted a conclusion of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which said there were 31 graves at the so-called Boot Hill Cemetery -- 29 boys and 2 adults, all of whom had been accounted for.

After using ground-penetrating radar and soil analysis, Kimmerle's group concluded there were at least 50 graves at the Boot Hill site, and that a second cemetery is likely to exist.

 

[JaxFlaGal]

More here as well:

Detzner also says that under Florida law, "human bodies are not objects to to be dug up for research purposes."
He encouraged the investigators to continue working with the Attorney General's office, the State Attorney and the local medical examiner to determine if crimes were committed at Dozier. However, he said, such an investigation does not fall under the Department of State's authority.
Earlier this year, a Jackson County judge wouldn't issue a court order allowing exhumation, saying instead that state law allows the medical examiner to conduct the dig without his permission.

http://wusfnews.wusf.usf.edu/post/state-turns-down-usf-request-dozier-exhumations


Add'l links:
http://www.jcfloridan.com/news/article_27c2ca7e-ed96-11e2-870f-0019bb30f31a.html

 

[KateB]

http://www.tampabay.com/news/usf-anthropologists-renew-effort-to-get-okay-to-dig-at-dozier/2131778

The USF researchers met with Florida Attorney General's Office representatives and both agreed to appeal the ruling from Secretary of State Ken Detzner.
...
Detzner denied the University's application for an exhumation permit Monday, saying the Department of State didn't have the statutory authority to allow the exhumations. But USF will argue that state law mandates it.

more at link.

 

[Linda7NJ]

How horrific and sad.

 

[LadyL]

FIVE years later and they STILL have not been allowed the proper permits?!

c'mon Florida - this is outrageous

 

[KateB]

It appears that the University of South Florida will get state approval to continue to locate and excavate bodies at the former Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys in Marianna.

Formal approval could come as soon as Tuesday, when the Florida Board of Trustees of the Internal Improvement Trust Fund will vote on a joint land-use agreement with the Department of Environmental Protection to permit the excavation on the former Dozier campus. According to the agenda, the board is recommending approval.

http://www.tampabay.com/news/humani...be-allowed-to-exhume-bodies-at-dozier/2134107

 

[KateB]

TALLAHASSEE — They call themselves the White House Boys, but they're old men now. Gray hair falls from their ball caps. They have bad backs and failing hearts and pictures of grandchildren in their wallets.

Tuesday morning, they slid into chairs before the Florida Cabinet. In the 1940s, '50s and '60s, Florida carried them away from their families and deposited them at one of the country's largest reform schools, in the Panhandle town of Marianna, a place where, some of them say, they were beaten so badly they can still feel it.

...

Their petition, spearheaded by anthropologists and archaeologists at the University of South Florida, finally landed before the top four officials in a state they say has failed them at every turn. And finally, the state didn't let them down.

Much more at link, including heart felt quotes from some of the surviving victims of Dozier that attended the hearing.

http://www.tampabay.com/news/educat...f-researchers-exhume-bodies-at-dozier/2135028

 

[KateB]

I just found their site: http://www.officialwhitehouseboys.org/

 

[Ausgirl]

BTW has anyone ever heard of a "Girls" reform school from back then?

They had places run by nuns here, for 'wayward girls'. Not so much schools but work-houses, doing laundry etc. A couple years ago I got chatting to an elderly lady at a city market - she told me about such a place operating not far from where we stood up until the 70's. Girls died there, too - one 'fell' out of a window, but the lady said her friend saw a nun push her and it was definitely murder. She seemed very upset that this was never investigated. But who'd believe a bunch of wayward girls?

One of the places Jimmy Savile mined for child sex was a reform school for girls, in the UK.

I'm sure they existed all over the US too. Horrible places, just pits of cruelty and abuse most of 'em that I've ever heard of. I am so, so glad the truth about this one is coming to light, for victims both living and deceased.

 

[KateB]

Today's Florida cabinet meeting is online. The portion related to Dozier begins at the 60:00 mark.
http://thefloridachannel.org/video/8613-florida-cabinet-meeting/

 

[mysteriew]

The fact that abuse may have occurred doesn't surprise me. Historically this was what happened with the poor and the vulnerable. Read up on 'poor houses' and 'insane asylums' and yes even orphanages and other instutions. Abuse was widespread and was either perpetrated by or ignored by governing authorities.

What I do find shocking, is that to this day (a supposedly more 'enlightened age) the state is fighting this. The OP was 2008 about the fight to find the burial sites. Here it is, 2013 and they are just getting around to approving it.


This institution was supposedly investigated several times before it was finally shut down. Yet things apparently didn't change much, other than the name changes.

Even today some of the info is being hidden with them citing 'confidentiality issues.'

IMO in some ways you can still see parallels in one modern day institution that reflects some of the same problems. The current day child protection agencies. Repeated investigations, little to no public accounting released, and hiding their problems behind 'confidentiality'. Yet publically you can see the results when you hear of children dying even though they were under CPS monitoring.

 

[JaxFlaGal]

2009 article, but a good read.
"White House Boys: Meet the Men" - stories of former inmates and staff at the Florida Industrial School for Boys.
http://jacksonville.com/news/whitehouseboys