Legislation sponsored by Senator Arthenia Joyner (D-Tampa) authorizing interment compensation for the families of deceased victims of the Arthur B. Dozier School for Boys and the creation of a memorial in memory of the deceased children was signed into law by the governor on Wednesday.
The bill, which took effect immediately upon the governor’s action, was sponsored in the House by Rep. Ed Narain (D-Tampa).
“This law finally ends a tragic chapter in Florida’s history,” said Senator Joyner. “It buries the dead with dignity, and establishes a permanent reminder so that the atrocities the children endured at Dozier are neither forgotten nor repeated.”
First opened in Florida in 1900, the Dozier school operated until its closure in 2011. Segregated until 1968, the school constructed in Marianna to “reform” a young offender so that he could be “restored to the community with purpose and character fitting for a good citizen” kept scarce records of the fate of boys it housed but rumors abounded of brutal treatment within its walls. Many of the boys, some of whom were sentenced to Dozier for minor infractions such as truancy or “incorrigibility,” were subject to physical and sexual abuse, and a number of them died on the premises.
A final report issued earlier this year documented the findings of a University of South Florida forensic team which led an investigation into the deaths and unidentified remains interred on the school grounds. The research team found and excavated 55 graves, positively identifying seven remains, and presumptively identifying 14 through DNA evaluation. Work to identify additional remains is expected to continue.
SB 708/HB 533 authorizes up to $7,500 to the family of a victim for reimbursement of burial and grave marker expenses. It also establishes a “Dozier Task Force” headed by the Secretary of the Department of State to recommend the creation of a memorial and permanent site for the re-interment of unidentified or unclaimed remains.
For More info on the tragedy read from NPR Here
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