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  1. #1
    WineKitty's Avatar
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    Abuse at infamous Florida boys reform school

    http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012...port-says?lite

    The Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys in Marianna, which was also known as the Florida State Reform School, closed in June 2011 after state investigators and the U.S. Justice Department's Civil Rights Division confirmed widespread abuse over many decades.

    The state attributed its decision to close the school to budgetary reasons. Yet long before then, the institution had been the target of investigations and lawsuits alleging not only physical and mental abuse but also forced labor, rape and even murder of the young charges sent to its care since it opened in 1900.

    The prominent writer Roger Dean Kiser, author of "The White House Boys — An American Tragedy," about the horrors he experienced while incarcerated there in the 1950s as a child, has called the school a "concentration camp for little boys." He wrote that "a devil was hiding behind every tree, every building and even behind every blade of manicured grass."

    "We anticipated finding about 25 to 30 grave shafts," said Christian Wells, an assistant professor of anthropology who led the anthropological work at the site, "but in fact we found a minimum of 50" — all of them on the north side of the campus, called Boot Hill, where African-American boys were segregated.

    A full picture of the sheer scale of the abuses remains difficult to paint, because there are significant gaps and discrepancies in the records, "and the cause and manner of death for the majority of cases are unknown," the report said.
    This is like something out of a horror story...too cruel, too unthinkable, and just too horrible to be true...and to have happened in the United States. How incredibly sad. Stories like this make me lose hope for mankind.

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    Quote WineKitty View Post
    http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012...port-says?lite



    This is like something out of a horror story...too cruel, too unthinkable, and just too horrible to be true...and to have happened in the United States. How incredibly sad. Stories like this make me lose hope for mankind.
    It is a tragedy, but a few things are a little out of touch.

    One, it happened so long ago. Do investigators really have to wait that long for evidence before conducting an investigation?

    Two, the graves were buried during a time of prevalent diseases as well as different standards in disciplining. We still have discipline problems today that are unrelated to the now resolved discipline problems of before.

    The situation comes off like an archaeological dig site discovery rather than a forensics case. It's horrible that it's happened, but is this really the best society can do? The investigation seems like an excuse to avoid uncovering the causes of America's widespread bullying epidemic.

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    The records post 1970 aren't even available due to privacy laws so no one really knows what happened in the later years. There were complaints for years and NOTHING was done about it. The place was only closed last year. It's only becoming public knowledge now.

    They expected to only find a 25 to 30 grave shafts and have found over double that. All due to influenza??? I think not.

    Personally, I would like to read the book mentioned in the article.

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    Quote WineKitty View Post
    The records post 1970 aren't even available due to privacy laws so no one really knows what happened in the later years. There were complaints for years and NOTHING was done about it. The place was only closed last year. It's only becoming public knowledge now.

    They expected to only find a 25 to 30 grave shafts and have found over double that. All due to influenza??? I think not.

    Personally, I would like to read the book mentioned in the article.
    It said post-1960.

    This is all just wrong on so many levels.

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    Quote Ironman View Post
    It said post-1960.

    This is all just wrong on so many levels.

    You are right. And that makes it even worse. I ordered the book for my Kindle. I cannot believe things like this go unheard in America, the cries of the abused ignored while mainstream media argues about Twinkies and what South Carolina's Demint is doing.

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    I cannot believe things like this go unheard in America, the cries of the abused ignored while mainstream media argues about Twinkies and what South Carolina's Demint is doing.
    I know what you mean, and it is frustrating.

    I have never been able to understand why the unimportant issues are the ones that people discuss. I mean, a celebrity dies of a drug overdose...even if I like the celebrity, like Michael Jackson, I never wanted him to get that much month's worth of news coverage...it's a tragedy, but there are people starving and dying of diseases in Africa, and war and famine going on in third world countries.

    I think part of the reason why it is easier to discuss the twinkie, than issues like this, is because it is something out of a horror story. Because it is an uncomfortable subject, they toss it underneath the bus. Not really excusing it, but I can understand why they wouldn't cover it.

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    Well, of course people want some amount of fluff in their news. Too much doom and gloom is asking a lot of anyone. What bugs me is that this story has been hidden from the general public, ignored by the main stream media for decades. I don't know how they cherry pick their stories but I would love to see the rise of a REAL news channel. I personally have to sift through many sources to get anything and still come up empty sometimes. Maybe I ought to start paying more attention to blogs.

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