Dozier School for Boys victims may finally receive reparations

A proposal to grant reparations to victims of abuse at several former Florida reform schools is moving through the legislature. Hundreds of children who attended the Dozier School for Boys in Marianna and the Okeechobee School were mentally, physically, and sexually abused between 1940 and 1975. Dozens were killed. A bipartisan bill going through the legislature would establish the Dozier School for Boys and Okeechobee School Victim Compensation Program, which would provide financial support to living victims. Richard Huntly is President of Black Boys at Dozier Reform School. He’s been advocating for himself and other victims for decades. During a hearing Tuesday on the bill, he recounted how he was beaten at Dozier. “No mercy. All I heard was get up, stand in that corner. When I got up off the bed it seemed like I was so heavy behind, but I was afraid to reach behind me for fear that all I would bring out from behind me was flesh and blood,” he said. Bryant Middleton, another survivor, talked about how the children were sexually abused. He said employees would come to the dorms in the middle of the night and select boys to take to a separate building...