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Cash for Families of Dozier Dead Clears Two Committees

January 26th, 2016 by Mike Vasilinda

Two legislative committees voted today to set aside a half million dollars to help pay the burial expenses for remains found at then defunct Dozier School for Boys. As Mike Vasilinda tells us, 51 bodies have been recovered but the identity of many remains a mystery.

The Dozier School for Boys had a checkered 111 year history. State Sen. Arthenia Joyner knew kids who were sent their as a child, and later taught high school students who did time at Dozier.

“So they personally related to me what happened to them there” Joyner told a legislative committee.

USF Researchers discovered 51 remains. 7 have been positively identified and the researchers believe they know the identity of 14 others.

Dale Landry, an NAACP executive, says most of the families of the deceased can’t afford burial expenses.

“They’re actually having to go out and do fundraisers, and they’re asking for people to make donations” says Landry.

Now Joyner is pushing legislation that would give each family seventy five hundred dollars to rebury the remains. She has the support of former Governor Bob Martinez, who changed leadership at the school in the 1980s.

“These youngsters have been in a potter’s field basically all this time, without markers or identification” said Martinez in one of his first legislative appearances in decades.

The legislation does nothing to decide what happens to the property next, but it does set up a task force that will help design a memorial.”

House Sponsor Ed Narain says the legislation is a step toward saying we’re sorry.

“There’s gonna be people whoa re unfortunately, never going to be satisfied, given the circumstances, but I think this is a step in the right direction to making things right.”

The money for burial would have to be claimed no later than the end of 2017.

A study published last week by the University of South Florida found that most of the deaths were caused by illnesses, but others were found to have been ben shot or beaten.

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