The task force charged with recommending the final resting places of young men believed to have been fatally beaten at the state-run Dozier School for Boys found itself racked by division Wednesday. Some members of the group argued vehemently against burying the remains anywhere but on the boarding school's grounds.

  • Florida's Dozier School for Boys task force divided on burial plans
  • Final recommendations due by Oct. 1

The panel was created by the Florida Legislature following the discovery of dozens of unmarked graves at Dozier. A team of University of South Florida anthropologists has identified some of the remains as those of former students at the school.

Bone fragments show signs of blunt force trauma, confirming accounts of brutal beatings of students at the hands of Dozier staff in the 1950s and '60s.

While many of the remains have been repatriated with the students' families, some have gone unclaimed. Re-interring them at the now-shuttered school, critics say, would add insult to injury.

"Why would we want, as White House boys, to have these kids re-interred on that property when they weren't taken care of in the first place?" asked Jerry Cooper, a task force member who represents men who claim to have been beaten during their time at Dozier.

For others on the panel, however, the remains are akin to historical artifacts that help tell the Dozier story - a story of state-sanctioned inhumanity that unfolded on the Panhandle school's campus.

"When your ancestors performed some of the most diabolical, masochistic acts known to man here, you want to move it out of Jackson County? What are you afraid of?" task force member Stephen Britt asked Cooper during a particularly tense exchange.

If the remains are to be re-interred elsewhere, the task force will also have to wrestle with where that should be. A publicly accessible site in a high-traffic area could lend itself to educational programs about Dozier's checkered history, but logistical challenges remain.

"Knock, knock, Mister Mickey Mouse, can we put a mausoleum right here in the front gateway to Disney World? Knock, knock, Mister Busch Gardens, can we put a mausoleum right here on the way to the biggest ride in Florida?" the Rev. Russell Meyer, another task force member, asked half-jokingly. 

Whatever the splintered panel decides, it'll have to act quickly. Final recommendations on the issue are due by Oct. 1.