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State Offer Apologies, But Future Of Marianna’s Dozier School Remains Unclear
January 22, 2016
State leaders Thursday apologized for the past as university researchers released their final study on long-buried bodies unearthed from the shuttered Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys in Northwest Florida.
Now, the state must figure out what to do with remains that have yet to be identified and with the 1,400-site in Jackson County, about 70 miles west of Tallahassee. The site had been put for sale before excavation was ordered due to questions about whether boys were left in unmarked graves after suffering abuse and death at the reform school.
After saying he was “sorry” for the generations of boys who endured whatever hardships may have occurred as wards of the state, Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam said the state must find a use for the Dozier site, whether it be recreational, educational or even for veterans’ services.
“The status quo is just not an option,” Putnam said. “It would make it worse for it to turn into a caricature of itself, some haunted juvenile prison that just breeds more rumors and mythology.”
The state might even consider some way to memorialize the site, which served as a reform school from 1900 to 2011 and is now locked behind a high chain-link fence. But Gov. Rick Scott and members of the Cabinet did not give direction Thursday after being presented with the University of South Florida researchers’ 168-page report, which doesn’t verify any students were killed by Dozier staff.
One holdup may be the need for a chemical analysis of the site, as researchers located asbestos and other potentially hazardous materials in some of the older buildings and where a dorm fire in 1914 claimed the lives of eight boys and two employees.
Attorney General Pam Bondi said the research findings should help the state and community “put these atrocities behind us.”
Scott said “people want to do the right thing.”
There may be additional unmarked burial sites on the property where researchers, starting in 2013, looked for remains. But USF anthropology professor Erin Kimmerle said that unless new information is advanced, “We feel our field work is done.”
Researchers reported unearthing 51 sets of remains from an area known as the Boot Hill Burial Ground. Seven of the bodies have been identified through DNA testing, of which four have been turned over to relatives and buried in family cemeteries.
The rest of the remains are housed at the Tampa university.
Former students at the school, who have told researchers of boys being beaten to death, said any unidentified remains should be laid to rest outside Jackson County, which includes Marianna.
“Do not return the remains to that area,” said Jerry Cooper, a ward of Dozier in the 1960s. “A lot of these children were not buried in a proper Christian manner.”
Dale Landry, president of the NAACP’s Tallahassee branch, favored using a mausoleum at the Dozier site to allow researchers in the future easier access to remains if identification can be made.
The report doesn’t fully verify the atrocities alleged by former students at the facility, which was segregated until 1968 and housed minors for crimes such as theft and murder, along with relatively minor offenses such as “incorrigibility,” “truancy,” or “dependency.”
Researchers found records for nearly 100 deaths among boys ages 6 to 18 between 1900 and 1973. Only 44 death certificates were issued, according to the report. At least 45 people were reportedly buried on the school grounds between 1914 and 1952, another 31 bodies were shipped to other locations for burial, and 22 deaths did not include burial locations.
Marianna City Manager James “Jim” Dean said local leaders want to work with the state to close what is a dark chapter in the community’s history.
The site is on the south side of Marianna, just north of Interstate 10. Putnam once described the site as the “gateway to Marianna.”
Elmore Bryant, a former Marianna mayor, asked if the local community could take control of the land.
“We will make you proud of what we do with that land,” Bryant said. “As Martin Luther King said, ‘It’s never too late to make a wrong right.’ I want to do that.”
by Jim Turner, The News Service of Florida
Pictured top: A trench dug in the search for human remains at the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys in Marianna. Pictured inset: The remains of George Owen Smith were positively identified. NorthEscambia.com file photos.
Comments
17 Responses to “State Offer Apologies, But Future Of Marianna’s Dozier School Remains Unclear”
The more I read Chris from molino comments The more l feel like he should be reported to someone this guy says he witnessed at least two people beat to death and made it sound like he wasn’t guilty because he didn’t participate that is murder whether he participated or not especially if he didn’t report what he seen now he may just be another idiot talking about something he has no clue about but all the same I think it needs to be investigated
@ Chris in molino it seems to me you didnt last either because you are on here posting about seeing men beat to death instead of reporting it what good did it do to watch the beatings and not report them you could have saved a life by reporting it
@chris in molino you just admitted that you watch people beat to death but did nothing about the only thing you can say was you didn’t participate did you report what you seen if not why not.
@CD That alone is heart–breaking… for a parent to not care about their own child. I’m too idealistic for this world! Either way, I still feel it shouldn’t be made into a recreational area.
The folks of Marianna can look the other way or be complicit all they want to. Same as FDOC. Build these prisons in podunk towns where most of the people of that county is employed or has family employed by the state. These are areas where 3 generations of gaurds have worked for the same prison. Up until 2000 that I know of, inmates would get off the bluebird at FSP and one would get stomped into the ground just to let everyone know where they were. I never participated although i’ve seen several inmates beat to death for no good reason. It’s bad habit and mentality. FDOC has been aware of everything although only act when forced by the court or most recently, social media, public perception, and media. Some of the gaurds who post on here whining all the time wouldn’t last a month in Region 2.
So Sad when reading a story like this. One hundred and eleven years. How can the people of Marianna that lived and worked there, live with themselves? I understand from a personal case of a unruly child that sometimes it is just about beyond being able to cope with. I think in times like this parents should give the best they got to try to get across to this child the understanding that he is Important, Loved and that God never makes a mistake. I am like others that have spoke in the form, NOW Something should be done to clear the air. As for as the property I feel that the property should be cleared beautified and set up at State Expense to remember these children and to be a constant reminder to those that did not speak up when they could have to BURN in their Minds. SAD SAD!!!
Wards of the state?? Who is the states ward??? For 73 years there was a mini holocaust going on under the eye of the state of Florida, a closed eye that is. No child could be that misbehaved to deserve this horror.
i was at the florida school for boy two different times..65,66,67,68..its very true about the beatings there.i had three and i can still remember it like it was yesterday..the pain is gone but yet it remains..god bless all of the white house boys..
The citizens of Marianna are “complicit” with what went on at Dozier.
They had knowledge of what was going on because those that lived near were working there.
The City leaders have protested any and all investigations into what all happened there and strongly tried to stop the latest investigations.
Shame on them all.
Some of the boys who survived, could possibly obtain the names and locations of their surviving antagonist.
Remember me? Can you imagine the look on their face and the chill down their spine.
I am not a person to hold a grudge, but I do want every gram of flesh that is due to me, when such can be facilitated with low to med personal risk.
Sometimes you get them, sometimes you simply have to let them be. God gets everyone at games end. It is not like anyone gets away.
@Janet, as someone who personally knew some of the boys that survived Marianna in the 60’s, you can be assured that not all parents were concerned about their children that were assigned (should say sentenced) to the school. There were parents who didn’t care and didn’t want the boys back. A popular form of “punishment” for whatever infraction was to wrap a boy from head to toe in a mattress while other boys beat them with baseball bats. They had to or they would be next! The mattress kept the bruises away but not the pain!
As a former ward of the state who was abused at The Florida School for Boys aka “dozier” these are my thoughts. I believe there are a number of positive things that need to be accomplished by the city officials of Marianna before this issue can begin to improve. The first and for most important aspect the city needs to address is to acknowledge what went on at the school for more than a century. This needs to be accomplished without denial by the people of Marianna who have known from the start, be it first hand information, history from within families and friends or written records. This dirty little secret and the truthfulness of what really happened needs to be exposed once and for all, long before any positive aspects of Marianna can ever be improved. Next, find a way to reclaim the land with state assistance and develop it into a location that reflects a positive connotation of good rather than what the former history has been. The History of this tragedy with the deaths and abuse will forever be known, it can no longer be denied. Now is the time for the people of Marianna to be on the right side of the notable part of history and to accept responsibility for the terrible things that happened at this institution for more than a century. Wounds and reputations will heal quicker when the truth is faced and fully acknowledged. I as an elderly grandfather would be willing to assist with finding a new direction and establishing hope for the improvement of the city of Marianna if I were asked.
why not make it into a home for vetrans perhaps it would help some homeless vetrans
I understand not letting the land stand empty and desolate but putting something there for recreational purposes is not, in my mind, a project for such a sad, tragic burial ground. Those young boys, no matter what they did to be put there, deserved a memorial of some sort. I can’t imagine, as a parent, the grief and pain of that terrible time. So long ago that if there was abuse and I feel there was; the abusers were not punished here on earth.
Efforts should be made to interview all surviving boys, camp officers and staff.
There are war criminals still being discovered today, after more than 70 years since WWII ended.
A most holy mission of justice, that should not be swept under for reasons of convenience.
No one held Accountable ?
Elmore Bryant, you’ll make us proud ? While you for decades acted as if everything was cool. State investigations of abuse since the day it opened but swept under the rug just like FDOC was able to do for so long. Now everone is with Rick (people want to do the right thing). I bet you do, now. Nomatter though. Anywhere you put simple people with no education looking for a “sweet” lazy job in control of other human beings, there’s trouble. Just look at FDOC. No college degree, mere months of “school”, an EASY-EASY job, paying about $650 per week to start and then have the nerve to whine about it ANYTIME a story regarding the department is mentioned. In the old days, all that was needed to rank up within the department was to bust enough inmate heads until you get noticed in a legal fashion. Now it’s more subtle and the whiners either consider it too much work or aren’t smart enough to play the game.