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Senator: Compensate injured victims of reform school
A state senator says the victims of abuse at a Florida reform school should be compensated for injuries.
Similar stories:•FDLE: No evidence of coverup in beatings at boys' schoolFDLE: No evidence of coverup in beatings at boys' schoolThe Florida Department of Law Enforcement said Friday there is no evidence to conclude that officials at the Dozier School for Boys in Marianna covered up any beating deaths in the anonymous graves on school property.Using officials records of the school and state, as well as interviews with more than 100 former students and staff of the school, state investigators concluded that there were 31 bodies buried at the school between 1914 and 1952 and each of the deaths were attributable to a known cause.''There is no evidence to suggest that the school or the staff made any attempt to conceal any other deaths,'' said FDLE Commissioner Gerald Bailey at a news conference Friday.•Inquiry urged into remains buried at school for boys
Inquiry urged into remains buried at school for boys
Convinced the 32 unmarked graves at the Florida School for Boys in Marianna are the bodies of boys abused and killed decades ago there, four former residents of the school are demanding the governor and state and federal attorneys investigate.The four men, all of whom suffered from brutal beatings while students at the Marianna-based school for delinquent boys in the late 1950s, sent letters to Gov. Charlie Crist, the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. attorney general alleging that the boys were victims of state-sponsored hate crimes and murder.
Their goal, they said, is for ''every last child, Caucasian, Hispanic and African-American who disappeared from the Florida School for Boys [to be] accounted for and, whatever relatives he may have, be given peace at last,'' said Michael O'McCarthy, 66, who resided at the school in 1958-59.
Probe finds no coverup of beating deaths at boys' school
In the first report on abuse allegations at the Dozier School for Boys in Marianna, state officials said Friday there is no evidence that the anonymous graves at the site were used to cover up beating deaths at the school -- a finding that has outraged several former students who were detained at the school.
The report by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement found that there were 31 bodies buried at the school between 1914 and 1952 and each of the deaths was attributable to a known cause.''There is no evidence to suggest that the school or the staff made any attempt to conceal any other deaths,'' FDLE Commissioner Gerald Bailey said at a news conference Friday.•Inquiry urged into remains buried at school for boysInquiry urged into remains buried at school for boys
Convinced the 32 unmarked graves at the Florida School for Boys in Marianna are the bodies of boys abused and killed there decades ago, four former residents of the school are demanding the governor and state and federal attorneys investigate.Standing on the steps of the U.S. Courthouse on Monday, the men recounted painful memories of their classmates who disappeared decades ago after brutal beatings or torture at the school for delinquent boys. They asked Gov. Charlie Crist and U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey to identify the remains to bring the families peace.The graves were on what officials once called ''the colored side'' of the school.
The men now believe they remain unmarked ''to hide the nature of those children's deaths,'' said Michael O'McCarthy, 66, who resided at the school in 1958-59.
BY MARY ELLEN KLASHerald/Times Tallahassee BureauTALLAHASSEE
-- TALLAHASSEE
Victims of abuse at the Florida Reform School for Boys should be compensated for their injuries at the hands of school staff during the 1940s, '50s and '60s, a Tampa state senator said in a bill filed on Friday.Sen. Arthenia Joyner, a Democrat and lawyer, filed the claims bills to pay an undetermined amount to the victims known collectively as the White House Boys, a reference to the white cinder-block house where the boys at the reform school in Marianna were sent for beatings.
Joyner's bill says that boys at both the Marianna and Okeechobee campuses suffered ``physical and psychological abuse'' that ``included beatings in which the boys were forced to lie face down on a blood-stained cot'' and were ``struck repeatedly with a leather razor strap.'' The bill details many of the allegations made by former students of the schools, which were first reported by The Miami Herald and later detailed by the St. Petersburg Times and other news organizations.`
`Some boys as young as 10 years of age were severely beaten, requiring the pieces of their cotton underwear be extracted from the boys' flesh,'' the bill reads. Other victims ``needed medical attention,'' and others ``were placed in solitary confirnement for as many as 30 days'' in an eight-foot windowless cell with a bunk and a bucket.
The news reports prompted Gov. Charlie Crist to order an investigation into 31 unmarked graves at the Marianna school in December.In May, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement concluded that there was no evidence that the graves held the remains of abused boys or that state officials covered up abuse. It found that there were 31 bodies buried at the school between 1914 and 1952 and each of the deaths was attributable to a known cause.
Hundreds of the alleged victims have since filed a class-action lawsuit in Pinellas County circuit court. The suit now has more than 400 claimants ``and is growing daily,'' said attorney Greg Hoag.The bill says that the class-action claimants are willing to hold off their lawsuit while the Legislature considers the claims bill. The bill also would limit the attorneys' proceeds in the case to 25 percent.
BY MARY ELLEN KLASHerald/Times Tallahassee BureauMary Ellen Klas can be reached at meklas@MiamiHerald.com
