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Bill To Compensate Families Of Dozier School Students Moves Forward

Empty burial sites on Dozier School grounds after USF researchers excavated 51 individual sets of remains in 2013. Photo: USF Dept of Anthropology
Empty burial sites on Dozier School grounds after USF researchers excavated 51 individual sets of remains in 2013. Photo: USF Dept of Anthropology

A bill is still moving through the process aimed at compensating those families who want to rebury their loved ones’ remains associated with the troubled Dozier School for Boys in Marianna.

University of South Florida researchers had uncovered more than 50 remains of boys believed to have died because of alleged abuse. So far, seven have been positively identified using DNA.

And Senate Democratic Leader Arthenia Joyner’s bill includes some new changes. “It provides for the continuity of the work that the University of South Florida has done for several years now and for which it is uniquely well-qualified, regarding the identification of the remains the university exhumed at the site and the identification of next of kin via DNA and other methods,” said Joyner.

Other changes include outlining the makeup of the eight-member Dozier Task Force, which is tasked with creating a memorial for the unclaimed remains and figuring out its location. Members will include former wards of the school and family members of boys whose remains were found by USF researchers buried on the property.