Florida bill advances to give victims compensation for abuse at infamous Dozier School

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – A Florida House panel favored a bill Tuesday establishing a victim compensation program to children that were mentally, physically and sexually abused between 1940 and 1975 by school personnel at the Dozier School for Boys and Okeechobee School.

Reps. Michelle Salzman, R-Cantonment, and Kiyan Michael, R-Jacksonville, filed HB 21.

“HB 21 establishes the Dozier School for Boys and Okeechobee School Victim Compensation Program within the Department of Legal Affairs to compensate living persons confined to the Dozier School or the Okeechobee School who were subjected to mental, physical, or sexual abuse perpetrated by the school personnel while they were so confined, subject to an appropriation,” Salzman said.

The House Appropriations Committee unanimously passed the bill 28-0

A reform school, the Dozier School opened in Marianna, Florida in 1900. The school housed children as as young as five for crimes ranging from theft and murder to incorrigibility and truancy.

The Okeechobee School, to address overcrowding at Dozier, was founded in 1955.

Salzman mentioned the abuse, according to five former students, occurred in a building of the detention center known as the “White House.”

Allegations of abuse occurred at the Dozier School in 1901 and at the Okeechobee School soon after it opened.

The Dozier School was shut down in 2011 while the Okeechobee School closed in 2020.

An anthropological team from the University of South Florida, surveying the site in 2012, found unmarked graves leading to over 50 bodies being recovered to date.

According to Salzman, most families were not notified of their children dying in the detention center.

In 2017, the Florida Legislature anonymously issued a formal apology to the victims of reform school abuse and their families.

Rep. Patricia Williams, D-Pompano Beach, asked what timeline victims will have to be compensated.

“In the statute it gives us to the end by September first, 2024,” Salzman said.

Ralph Freeman, who attended the Dozier School for Boys, described himself as a “hero and survivor” of the abuse instead of a victim.

“God said I had to do something, because I cannot let Dozier win, I refuse to let Dozier win,” Freeman said. “I was tortured, [to] this day, I can’t even have children because of things that happened to me at Dozier.”

Freeman recounted having been beaten by a tractor with straps connected to a wheel.

“I was strapped to a table, and a man driving a tractor into belts continued to turn and hit me and embedded my underwear into my behind,” Freeman said.

He also called the torture no different than that of concentration camps.

“Our state ran a daycare that killed kids,” Freeman said. “There’s 180 missing. Can we find them? You don’t know them, but God know their names. We know they were there. You don’t understand,” Freeman said, becoming emotional.

“I’m not going to let Dozier win,” Freeman added. “And this state, and this country can’t let it win.”

Charles Fudge, another attendee of Dozier, recalled similar abuse at the “White House.”

“I got 31 licks with the leather strap. I think after four licks, my body just became numb,” Fudge said. “Over the years, I’ve had to have back surgery. I think part of it was called from the beating that I endured.”

Salzman and Michael also filed a linked bill creating a public records exemption for HB 21. The bill is currently making its way through the House.

HB 21 now moves to the Florida House for approval. It will take effect if fully passed July 1.

The Senate version of the bill was brought by Sen. Darryl Rouson, D-St. Petersburg. It still has one more committee to go.