At Boys’ Home, Seeking Graves, and the Reason

Submitted by Matt on Sun, 2013-02-10 20:03

Story here. Excerpt:

'MARIANNA, Fla. — Nobody is quite sure how many boys’ bodies lie beneath the grounds of the notorious Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys, or which one is Thomas or Owen or Robert.

Nobody is quite sure how most of them died — the cause is often listed as “unknown” or “accident” — or why a great number were buried with such haste.

The scattered graves bear no markings: no names, no loving sentiment. The only hint of a cemetery are the white crosses that the state planted in the 1990s, belatedly and haphazardly.

From the time it opened in 1900, as the state’s first home for wayward children, until it closed in 2011, as a residential center for high-risk youths, Dozier became synonymous with beatings, abuse, forced labor, neglect and, in some cases, death. It survived Congressional hearings, state hearings and state investigations. Each one turned the spotlight on horrific conditions, and little changed.'

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This was instead a home for "wayward girls". Think the narrative would be the same? The article concludes:

'Now Dr. Kimmerle and her team have brought new hope that the children may finally be honored. “They want the boys brought home,” said Dr. Kimmerle, who has helped locate graves all over the world. “These were not throwaway children.”'

"Not throwaway children." Actually, yes, they were. They were boys. They were "troublesome". So they were especially throwaway. And they were thrown away. But being throwawayable is something I suppose males ought to get used to early on. After all, between attitudes about the disposability of men vs. women when push comes to shove on such matters as women in combat, the double-standards are laid bare. Just in this case, they were thrown away *before* they were 18, that's all.

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Submitted by Matt on Sun, 2013-02-10 20:11

The profound inhumanity with which society treats boys writ large.

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Submitted by cwondermagic1 on Sun, 2013-02-10 21:37

It certainly has all the elements necessary for a Hollywood movie. The only thing missing is a politically correct screenplay. Change the sex of the characters to female and it's a shoe-in for a show.

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Submitted by MR on Sun, 2013-02-10 23:04