Dozier School of Boys victim certification process considered by Legislature

Time for a proper burial?

Less than a year after the Florida Legislature formally apologized for the physical and sexual abuse of hundreds of boys at the Arthur G. Dozier School of Boys, lawmakers are embarking on “the next step in their quest for justice.”

That would mean pushing a proposal that would require the state to give those who were abused at the state-run reform school between 1940 and 1975 the opportunity to be certified as victims. This would facilitate the process for them to file claims bills and have the state compensate them for their injuries.

“This will give us a clear picture of who the living victims are, those who live amongst us and living with psychological issues from the abuse,” said Sen. Darryl Rouson, a St. Petersburg Democrat sponsoring the proposal which cleared its first of three Senate committee stops on Monday.

The application process would go through the Department of Juvenile Justice and would require victims to submit their application by October. A list of all certified victims would then be sent to the Senate President and Speaker of the House by March 1, 2019.

Former Florida governor Bob Martinez commended senators in the Criminal Justice Committee for considering Rouson’s proposal, adding that it will make last year’s apology to the “individuals instead of the institution.”

“We are grateful that you apologized,” said Jerry Cooper, who was sent to the school when he was 16 and is now in his 70s.  “It means so much to us that it happened.”

After decades of abuse, the school closed in 2011. In 2012, a forensic investigation carried out by the University of South Florida uncovered 55 unmarked graves — more than half of what was on the official record. But there are more people who are thought to have died there.

“Six out of 65 have only been identified through DNA,” Cooper said. “We are the only family these kids have now and we don’t even know their names.”

The measures considered by the Legislature this year to formally certify the victims of abuse at the school are just now making their trek through the process.

The bill in the Senate has two more committee stops before it can head to the full floor. Its House companion bill has three more assignments to go.