1. Dozier School for Boys
After reading about the Dozier School for Boys several thoughts popped into my head, these thoughts led me to research more about it. First some background so you can know what I’m talking about. The Dozier School for Boys was a reform school in panhandle town of Marianna, Florida from January 1, 1900, to June 30, 2011. For a time, it was the largest juvenile reform institution in the United States. A second campus was opened in the town of Okeechobee in 1955. Over the years this school began to grow a reputation for abuse, beatings, rapes, torture, and even murder of students by staff. These actions were made on a daily basis even with the periodic investigations, changes of leadership, as well as the promises to improve; nothing had changed the allegations of cruelty and abuse continued. Many of the allegations were 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. State authorities closed the school permanently in June 2011. Since the closing a group of “survivors” who are called the white house boys have depicted these stories and it is shocking to hear some of the bone chilling jaw biting verbal images.
Now my thoughts on all of this is that one why didn’t the state try harder in their investigations to try to catch the school red handled. I understand that the norms and ideas were different in the 50’s and 60’s then it is now but how can it take 111 years to close this school. Clearly the state and the FBI had probable cause to search and question on the fact of the reputation the school had. It just is mind blowing to know that these boys in their teens were getting treated this way and a number of them were murdered or had gone missing. Very recent in the news a professor at USF and others had undergone a recover of bodies at the so called burial site. To their surprise what they thought to only be 31...