TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Gov. Rick Scott on Wednesday signed 14 bills into law, including a measure that attempts to deal with the notorious legacy of the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys.
The Marianna school located 60 miles west of Tallahassee was shuttered in 2011. Some former students have accused school officials of physical and sexual abuse.
Researchers who recently wrapped up an investigation exhumed dozens of bodies buried there.
The bill (SB 708) approved by Scott would provide $1.5 million for the reburial of bodies removed from the 1,400-acre site and to establish the memorial. The state will provide up to $7,500 for funeral and burial expenses for each exhumed body.
University of South Florida researchers, who has spent over a year excavating the site, has until July to turn over contact information for the remains they have identified. The state then has fifteen days to tell the families they are eligible for the 75 hundred in burial expenses. If new identities are matched, USF much notify the state at least five days before turning the remains over to the family.
“We make sure that we have the money to go on and beyond, as it related to not just this year, but until the last set of remains are reinterred," NAACP Vice President Dale Landry said.
The Jackson County school site had been put up for sale before USF performed excavation work because of accounts of violence and bodies left in unmarked graves at the reform school, which operated from 1900 to 2011.
A 168-page report was presented earlier this year to Gov. Rick Scott and the Florida Cabinet. The report didn't verify any students were killed by Dozier staff, but outlined 51 sets of remains unearthed from an area known as the Boot Hill Burial Ground.
Landry and others are calling for a memorial on the site and creating a mausoleum for those who remain unidentified.
“Closure means we’ve closed the books and this is behind us. This can never be behind us. This should be something that is always there that reminds of of our inhumanity to children," Landry said.