Bill Text: FL S1440 | 2017 | Regular Session | Introduced

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

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Bill Title: Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys/Florida School for Boys

Spectrum: Slight Partisan Bill (Republican 23-13-1)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2017-04-26 - CS adopted, companion bill(s) passed, see CS/HR 1335 (Adopted) [S1440 Detail]

Download: Florida-2017-S1440-Introduced.html

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       Florida Senate - 2017                            (NP)    SR 1440
       
       
        
       By Senator Rouson
       
       
       
       
       
       19-01412-17                                           20171440__
    1                          Senate Resolution                        
    2         A resolution acknowledging the abuses experienced by
    3         children confined in the Arthur G. Dozier School for
    4         Boys and expressing the Legislature’s regret for such
    5         abuses and the commitment to ensure that the children
    6         of the State of Florida are protected from the abuses
    7         and violations that took place at such facility.
    8  
    9         WHEREAS, the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys, or the
   10  Dozier School for Boys, had campuses in Marianna and Okeechobee,
   11  Florida, and was operated by the State of Florida from 1900
   12  until 2011, when the school closed after allegations of abuse
   13  were confirmed in separate investigations by the Department of
   14  Law Enforcement in 2010 and the Civil Rights Division of the
   15  United States Department of Justice in 2011, and
   16         WHEREAS, the state and federal investigations revealed that
   17  many of the boys who had been sent to the Dozier School for Boys
   18  reported credible instances of being physically,
   19  psychologically, and sexually abused by staff members at the
   20  school, and
   21         WHEREAS, many of the boys who had been sent to the Dozier
   22  School for Boys were sent for minor offenses such as truancy,
   23  incorrigibility, or smoking, and
   24         WHEREAS, many of the boys were not given a trial before
   25  being sent by the State of Florida to the Dozier School for
   26  Boys, and
   27         WHEREAS, many of the boys were beaten at a facility known
   28  as the “White House” at the Dozier School for Boys, and
   29         WHEREAS, at least one of the Dozier School for Boys
   30  administrators has testified under oath that the boys who were
   31  taken to the White House were told to lie face down on a cot in
   32  an otherwise empty room, that at times two or three other boys
   33  would hold down the boy being punished, that the administrator
   34  hit the boys with a thick leather razor strap with a handle
   35  eight to ten times per infraction, that at times he witnessed
   36  bruises on the boys’ buttocks afterward, that the director of
   37  the school was always present during the beatings, and that the
   38  beatings could be given as punishment for such infractions as
   39  smoking, talking about running away, or having an attitude
   40  problem, and
   41         WHEREAS, the beatings in the Okeechobee facility of the
   42  Dozier School for Boys included strikes with leather straps that
   43  had quarters or dimes embedded in the leather to provide extra
   44  weight, and assaults using probing rods that were made of wood,
   45  and
   46         WHEREAS, boys were placed in isolation for extended
   47  periods, deemed as an “egregious and dangerous practice” by the
   48  2011 United States Department of Justice Report on the Dozier
   49  School for Boys, and
   50         WHEREAS, abuses occurring at the Marianna and Okeechobee
   51  campuses of the Dozier School for Boys were considered the
   52  standard, accepted practice and procedure for administering
   53  discipline at the school, and
   54         WHEREAS, former Governor Claude Kirk toured the school in
   55  1968 and stated, “If one of your kids were kept in such
   56  circumstances, you’d be up there with rifles,” and
   57         WHEREAS, a forensic investigation funded by the Legislature
   58  and conducted by the University of South Florida from 2013 to
   59  2016 found that there are no records of the locations of burial
   60  of the children who died at the Dozier School for Boys and that
   61  families were often denied access to their child’s remains at
   62  the time of burial or notified of their child’s death only after
   63  the child was buried, and
   64         WHEREAS, exhumations of bodies began in 2013, and the
   65  excavations yielded 55 burial sites, 24 more sites than reported
   66  in official records, and
   67         WHEREAS, many questions persist about who is buried at the
   68  Dozier School for Boys and the circumstances surrounding the
   69  children’s deaths, and
   70         WHEREAS, more than 500 former students of the Dozier School
   71  for Boys have come forward alleging physical, mental, and sexual
   72  abuses from the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, and
   73         WHEREAS, the survivors of these abuses have suffered severe
   74  physical and psychological damages that have endured throughout
   75  their adult lives, NOW, THEREFORE,
   76  
   77  Be It Resolved by the Senate of the State of Florida:
   78  
   79         That the Senate acknowledges that the treatment of the boys
   80  who were sent to the Dozier School for Boys was cruel and
   81  unjust, a violation of human decency toward the individuals who
   82  had been placed in the state’s care.
   83         BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Senate acknowledges that
   84  the operation of the Dozier School for Boys, including the
   85  physical, emotional, and sexual abuse of children confined to
   86  the facilities, is a shameful part of the history of the State
   87  of Florida.
   88         BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Senate regrets that
   89  children of this state were subjected to the cruelty and abuse
   90  that have come to light in recent years and the State of Florida
   91  apologizes to the boys sent to the Dozier School for Boys and
   92  their family members for the wrongs committed against them
   93  during the 111-year operation of the school.
   94         BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Senate expresses its
   95  commitment to ensure that the children of Florida are protected
   96  from the kind of abuse and violation of fundamental human
   97  decency that previously took place at a facility operated by
   98  employees of the State of Florida.