Graves Probed At Brutal Fla. Reform School

Governor Opens Investigation Over Decades-Old Charges That Children Were Buried On Grounds

(AP)  A former inmate at a Florida reform school known for severe beatings decades ago says he remembers walking into a laundry room, peering through a foggy dryer window and seeing a boy tumbling inside. Afraid of retribution, Dick Colon walked away.

But Colon now wonders whether the boy he saw could be buried near the school. Florida law enforcement said Tuesday they have started an investigation into the enduring mystery: Who lies beneath the more than 30 white metal crosses - bearing no names or dates or other details - at a makeshift cemetery near the grounds of the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys, where youngsters were routinely beaten and abused in the 1950s and '60s.

"I think about it very often because I feel guilty. I felt as though I could have walked over there and opened the door and tried to give him some help, but then what the hell was going to happen to me if I did?" said Colon, now 65 and living in Baltimore. "That particular kid was never seen again."

Gov. Charlie Crist ordered the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to investigate at the urging of Colon and other men who committed crimes as boys and were sent to the school. The agency was tapped to find out what was in the graves, identify any remains and determine whether any crimes occurred.

"Justice always cries out for a conclusion and this is no different," Crist told reporters. "If there's an opportunity to find out exactly what happened there, to be able to verify if there were these kinds of horrible atrocities ... we have a duty to do so."

The Department of Juvenile Justice has no records that explain what's in the cemetery near the 108-year-old reform school.

One theory is the graves contain the bodies of six boys who died in a 1914 school fire. But that would only explain a fraction of the markers.

Current school superintendent Mary Zahasky hopes the graves do not contain children.

"When I first saw it - those kinds of things tug at your heart. I'm a mother myself," she said. "I just can't imagine having my child buried out there like that."

Colon is part of a group of men who call themselves "The White House Boys Survivors" because they suffered abuse in a small, white building known as the White House. It contained two rooms where guards would beat children, one for black inmates; one for whites.

The boys were forced to lie on a bed, face down in a pillow covered with blood, spit and mucous, and were repeatedly struck with a long leather-and-metal strap for offenses as slight as singing, or talking to a black inmate. They described beatings so severe that underwear became imbedded in skin.

The Department of Juvenile Justice acknowledged the abuse in October, placing a plaque on the now-closed white building.

"The staff was so brutal that just even the slightest frown on your face or even the slightest word out of context could cause you to be sent down to the White House and be viciously beaten to the point that you would become unconscious and bleed profusely down your legs and your back," Bryant Middleton, 63, of Fort Walton Beach, said Monday.

After the October ceremony, Department of Juvenile Justice staff took five of the former inmates to the cemetery, which is located near the facility that used to house black inmates. An adult prison now stands on the property.

"This is a big occasion for the state of Florida," Michael O'McCarthy, 66, who was sent to the detention center when he was 15 for stealing auto parts, said of the investigation. "Rarely do state or federal governments like to admit that they have committed this type of egregious, destructive kinds of crimes, especially to children."

At least one former reform school student said the men's stories may be exaggerated.

"They were justified in giving me these paddlings because, hey, I was wrong," said Phil Hail of Anniston, Ala., who remembered going to the white building once for getting low grades in 1957. "It comes down to if you abide by the rules, you're not punished."

Hail's description was similar to what the other men described, but he said the school wasn't a "house of horrors."

"Was (the school) run with a very strict hand? Yes, it was," he said. "Were the paddlings very severe? Yes, they were."

[gowalum]

If what I read here is true then the US government as well as the state of Florida needs to issue full statements of regret about the child abuse that took place here. Anyone who committed these child abuse acts and is still living, as I read a few of the former teachers in the "white house room" are still alive, they must be charged with child abuse. If this happened in a house by a parent and a child reported it at school the parent would immediately be arrested and charged. The same must be done here regardless of how many years have passed. From there they can investigate if any students died as a result of the abuse and press charges on that from there. No human being would treat a child the way I read in an article recently and it sounds much more like Germany in the days of Hitler then it does the USA in the 1900''s.

[hunterdon6]

The same thing goes on now, only its the parents doing this kind of punishment.

[voidmaster-2009]

I have yet to hear of any Janjaweed attacks in the U. S.

There is a hell of a lot more justification for your using military force in Dufar than there ever was in Iraq.

[rhs648]

All of the fuss about these boys from 50 years ago, but not a whisper about the Dead and dying children in Darfur and Somalia where they are ripped from their Mothers arms and hacked to pieces with Machettes to scare the people into obedience. My heart goes out to all children, condemn all cruelty....

Posted by ToolMangler

Hi ToolMangler - Charity starts at home. Whenever we try to be the policeman of the world, countries turn against us. Perhaps we should look at injustices in our own country before we try to right all of the wrongs of the world. There are people suffering in America, too. Look at the poverty, unemployment, and crime right here at home. Just some thoughts.

[toolmangler-2009]

'' .. 150 years ago, near everyone knew how to farm, and near no one went to school .. now none knows how to farm, and all go to school .. ''
Posted by morphndol6 at 08:27 PM : Dec 10, 2008




I still know how to farm with a two horse plow. and I also know how to make the plow from the ground. but I won''t be around much longer (Tempos Fugits)

[toolmangler-2009]

Posted by morphndol6 at 08:27 PM : Dec 10, 2008



All that ground up garbage you spewed was said in four lines by me right above it. Speak clearly and you will be heard, not ignored

[toolmangler-2009]

All of the fuss about these boys from 50 years ago, but not a whisper about the Dead and dying children in Darfur and Somalia where they are ripped from their Mothers arms and hacked to pieces with Machettes to scare the people into obedience. My heart goes out to all children, condemn all cruelty....

[au_fait]

It is saddening to see this opening up old wounds. Most of the guards in the day are dead and what justice will be served from this. Not being hard of the heart, but I don''t see what good can come of this. Sorry mom, your son did not die of natural causes or your son did not run away from the school. Instead he was murdered. There is nothing good to come from this.

[legacyabq]

How could kids just disappear from a school. The state put them there. Didnt anybody say "hey wheres so-and-so?" How could they murder children and bury them without someone noticing?
This makes no sense! Its crazy!
Humanity is really sickening sometimes!

[chyenna-2009]

Justice always cries out for a conclusion and this is no different," Crist told reporters. "If there''s an opportunity to find out exactly what happened there, to be able to verify if there were these kinds of horrible atrocities ... we have a duty to do so."


OMG! It took aprox. 50 years to figure out the above needed doing!!!!!!!
I hate nothing surprises me anymore about the human race.

[newmark3]

look at it like this those animals if they are not alive are burning in Hell, where they belong. People that do harm to other people for one can''t see the harm that they are doing because they are to demonic fulled with spirits, that''s why they go to Hell when they Die. So thay are getting they azz whipped for eternity

[susieq_13]

That is absolutely horrible what those animals did to those boys. They were just boys. I hope those that are still alive that did that to them, will have done to them.

[johncarl54]

mr phil hail sounds like a victim of the Stockholm syndrome. i cannot imagine humans being that brutal. find those staff that are still alive and put them in prison for the remainder and then to hell with them.

[inketolstoy]

"It contained two rooms where guards would beat children, one for black inmates; one for whites."

Ah, the good old South, where even abuse had racial rules and etiquette.

[ccdsswrkr08]

you guys have way too much time on your hands that you''re copying every comment DaVicar1 makes...heh.

[easeup-2009]

Posted by lastdance134 at 01:36 PM : Dec 10, 2008

Just curious--how do you feel about Oklahoma playing for the BCS championship in spite of the fact Texas beat them on a neutral field?

[clathrate]

DaVicar1

If You Approve and Like KILLING PEOPLE with
Toxic Chemicals - Viruses, Bacterial Agents and Deadly Toxins

Just Say : You want to Kill People with :
Toxic Chemicals - Viruses, Bacterial Agents and Deadly Toxins

Anyone who : RIDICULES or BELITTLES - KILLING PEOPLE with :
Toxic Chemicals - Viruses, Bacterial Agents and Deadly Toxins

Has FANTASIES of Doing Just That ! ! ! !


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted by lastdance134

You know, this guy "DaVicar" concentrates his comments on stories about dead people, especially kids.

I agree with you, I think DaVicar is likely a pedophile. One statement is weird. But a LONG history of such statments points to a deviant personality disorder. I wouldn''t be too surprised if this guy isn''t writing from inside the pen.

[hbevis]

I was raised near this school and in the 1940''s and 50''s it had a bad name. Some of these people were known to the adult people that I knew. They did not want a kid hearing anything that they talked about but, I heard enough to know that they did not like what was going on at the school...

[debinok1]

It took alot of courage for this man and the others to come forward even so many years after. If any of those responsible are still alive, I hope justice will be done.

[lucilioness]

SAD STORY. BUT IT CAN, AND DOES HAPPEN THROUGHOUT THE WORLD. THERE ARE SICK, SADISTIC PEOPLE IN JOBS LIKE THESE, WHO DERIVE PLEASURE OUT OF BEING "LEGALLY" AUTHORIZED TO PHYSICALLY TORTURE, MAME, AND MURDER OTHER HUMAN BEINGS. I WANT TO KNOW WHO''S BURIED IN THOSE GRAVES.