In a horrific story of abuse at a
now-closed reform school in the Florida panhandle that operated from 1900 until
it was shut in 2011, forensic anthropologists from the University of South
Florida have uncovered the remains of 55 African-American boys. This is more than twice the amount that the
Dozier School reported had died during the tenure of the school. The school was segregated for much of its
existence. The anthropologists haven’t
searched for or found the white section yet.
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| Family at the Dozier School |
MSN reports (along with the Wall Street Journal, that has been reporting on the story
for some time as it has developed) that the anthropologists have been using
ground sensing technology to find areas of decreased density, then unearthing
and cataloging the remains. They have been taking DNA samples from relatives
who had loved ones die or disappear at the school – which had a reputation for
shocking brutality.
The Dozier School began as a
reform school for boys who committed relatively major crimes, but over the
years began to house kids with lesser offenses.
None of them were capital offenses.
Robert Straley, now age 63, was one
of the former inmates who initially brought allegations of the brutality at the
school. He was sent there in 1963 for car theft. He said he was whipped 35 or 40 lashes with a
three foot long whip the first night he was at the school (WSJ article). The school “was brutal beyond belief.”
Hopefully those who committed
this brutality, and allowed it to go unchecked for all those years, will be
taken to task. Hopefully the families
who lost loved ones, who lost children, will have some closure.
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