Dozier School for Boys Cemetery to Be Investigated by Florida Authorities

White House Boys Recall Years of Abuse at Florida Reform School

Reform school stories of abuse are nothing new. They crop up from time to time to remind the general populace that some should not have authority over others, regardless of past indiscretions committed by those others. Such is the case of the century of abuse being reported by the Associated Press and other news outlets concerning the Dozier School for Boys in Marianna, Florida, where young boys were sent for committing crimes and receiving poor grades.

Calling themselves the "White House Boys," so described because of the shared experience of being taken to the "white house" for beatings while placed at the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys, five men have called for an investigation of unmarked graves behind the school. After a ceremony where the state of Florida admitted to the abuse of those sent to the school and permanently sealed the White House building, the White House Boys described some of the abuses they endured at the hands of those that ran the Dozier School of Boys.

Some of the stories are of acts of outright physical child abuse. Some stories hint at murder. And cover-up.

The graves behind the Dozier School for Boys are headed with crosses without names. The White House Boys believe that some of the graves contain the bodies of children beaten and/or abuse to the point of death during the reform school's 108 years of operation.

Much of the story can be read at thewhitehouseboys.blogspot.com. The site details many abuses and alleged deaths that occurred at the reform school. An account of the act of flogging, a punishment that was outlawed in the state of Florida for men in 1922, exposes the unusually cruel practice being used on boys and young men at the White House until 1967. A veritable torture chamber, being taken to the White House was to be feared because some did not return.

What could get a boy sent to the White House? Talking to a black inmate, saying the wrong thing, or having the wrong facial expression at the wrong time could get one sent to the White House building, which contained two rooms where the beatings and abuses took place. One room was for black inmates, the other for whites.