On Feb. 20, House and Senate committees approved bills that would create a compensation program for victims of abuse at the state’s now-closed Dozier School for Boys in Marianna and another reform school in Okeechobee County.
For more than a decade, victims have told their stories to lawmakers about the abuse and beatings they suffered. The difference this time was that Levin Papantonio Rafferty (LPR) law firm got involved.
In May 2022, Inweekly traveled with Troy Rafferty, Mike Papantonio and their legal team to Marianna and toured the abandoned buildings with survivors of the “reform” school. The men—most are older than 60—were part of a group called “The White House Boys.” The term referred to a small white building next to the school’s cafeteria, where boys were beaten, tortured and abused.
One survivor said, “I worked in the kitchen, and what they would do is they’d come over to the kitchen, tell Mr. Edinfield to get three of us to go over and hold the child down. So, we’d hold 5 and 6- and 7-year-old children down … And when the beating was over, we went back to the kitchen and went back to work.”
Another victim shared as he stood in front of the white house, “I was brought to this building behind us three times. Beaten with a leather strap, about 8 inches long, 4 inches wide with a wooden handle on it, with metal at the tip end of it. Not only that, I was raped and sexually assaulted in this building. And I was told if I ever mentioned it to anyone, that I would never see my family again.”
The House Appropriations Committee and the Senate Criminal and Civil Justice Appropriations Committee approved the measures (HB 21 and SB 24), sponsored by Rep. Michelle Salzman, R-Pensacola, Rep. Kiyan Michael, R-Jacksonville, and Sen. Darryl Rouson, D-St. Petersburg.
The bills would create a compensation program the Attorney General’s Office would administer. It would apply to living people who were abused between 1940 and 1975 while students at the schools. The bills do not detail amounts of money, saying they would be “subject to appropriation” from the Legislature.
LPR attorney Rafferty attended the hearings with 25 Dozier School survivors. He said, “We’ve got a lot of really great legislators behind us doing something for these folks, and I’m very happy for these men. Michelle Salzman has just poured her heart into this with me.”
He added, “This has been one of the causes that has touched me very personally, having sat and listened to all of these stories. It wasn’t a school; it was a forced labor camp.”
In 2016, University of South Florida forensic anthropologists leading an excavation of Dozier property found human remains in 55 unmarked graves, “some with gunshot wounds or signs of blunt force trauma.” Lawmakers in 2017 formally apologized to victims of the abuse. A memorial to the victims was dedicated at Marianna in January 2023.
The House bill now goes before the full House for a vote. The Senate bill has one more committee hearing before reaching the Senate floor.
Debunking the Debunking
On Feb. 15, Gov. Ron DeSantis tried to debunk what he called the “false narrative that the state of Florida bans books,” but he also asked state lawmakers to help curb the number of books being removed from school libraries and classrooms.
“Over the past year, parents have used their rights to object to pornographic and sexually explicit material they found in school libraries,” he told the media. “We also know that some people have abused this process in an effort to score cheap political points. Today, I am calling on the Legislature to make necessary adjustments so that we can prevent abuses in the objection process and ensure that districts aren’t overwhelmed by frivolous challenges.”
The governor directed Education Commissioner Manny Diaz, Jr., whom he appointed, to “prohibit bad actors in school leadership positions from intentionally depriving students of an education by politicizing the book review process.” He also asked the legislature to pass legislation to limit “bad-faith objections made by those who don’t have children learning in Florida.”
PEN America is part of the lawsuit against the Escambia County School Board over the removal of books from schools. In a phone interview, its Florida director, Katie Blankenship, debunked DeSantis’ debunking.
“I think this press conference was an interesting tactic by the governor, but I think the real motivation is pretty clear,” Blankenship said. “They know that this book banning has gone too far.”
She wasn’t surprised the governor and his education commissioner didn’t take responsibility for the chaos they created. “The real message that’s coming from Governor DeSantis and Manny Diaz, no matter all the gaslighting and smoke and mirrors, is they see that these policies of censorship that they’ve started aren’t working, and Floridians don’t like them.”
While the governor doesn’t want to call the removal of books from schools a ban, Blankenship called him out for creating havoc with vaguely worded bills that easily remove books from schools without a timetable for reviewing and reinstating them.
“When we survived a motion to dismiss, the judge said from the bench to Escambia County School Board about the lack of a timeframe of any promise to get these books reviewed, ‘How is that not a ban? If you’re pulling things off and there’s no idea of when they’re coming back, it could be weeks, months, it could be the entire school year or more; how is that not a ban?’” she recalled.
The PEN America director saw the governor’s press conference as a victory because state officials were reacting to Floridians standing against censorship and the degradation of public education.
“Why did you see Governor DeSantis and Commissioner Manny Diaz, Jr. up on that platform, blaming and gaslighting with the end of the day, acknowledging there’s a problem?” Blankenship asked. “Because Floridians are demanding something different,
and they understand that.”
American Magic Lease
On Monday, Feb. 26, Mayor D.C. Reeves and Skipper Terry Hutchinson signed a lease agreement for the American Magic to relocate its headquarters to the Port of Pensacola.
“We’re very, very excited, and I really truly believe that this project can be transformational for the city,” Mayor Reeves said at his weekly presser the previous week. “I think these opportunities don’t come along often that you can now call yourselves at the forefront of the United States in something.”
He continued, “We are going to be able to say we’re the leading sailing community of the United States when they arrive here.”
The contract is for 10 years, with a 10-year option, for an annual lease of $291,200. If American Magic wins an America’s Cup, it will host one preliminary regatta within three years of the win “so long as the City of Pensacola is prepared to host a preliminary regatta and commits to covering costs normally provided by host cities, including, for example, providing space at the Port required by competitors, security (both on land and in the water), required on-water infrastructure, and required people management.”
Each year of the lease, American Magic will hold a “Pensacola/American Magic Open House” free to the public. The tenant also will “use its best efforts to host at least two international sailing events or regattas each lease year in Pensacola Bay and/or the Gulf of Mexico near Pensacola.” American Magic also must create 120 new jobs for at least four years or pay a $3 million penalty.
Ready for School
On Thursday, Feb. 22, the Florida Department of Education released the Kindergarten Readiness scores for this past fall. Escambia County’s readiness increased by 4.5%, with 49.5% of the incoming kindergarten students ready for school, up from 45.1% in the fall of 2022. Escambia is only 1.7% below the statewide average of 51.2%. Santa Rosa County dropped two points, but it was well above the state average, with 59.2% ready for kindergarten.
A key to Escambia County’s success appears to be having more students in the Voluntary Pre-Kindergarten (VPK) program. The VPK students outperformed other kindergarteners 60.2% to 35.5%. Escambia County had 97 more VPK students score well on the screening than in 2022.
Irresponsible Spending On “Real News with Rick Outzen,” Mayor Reeves didn’t want to argue the merits of the effort to force a referendum on whether the Malcolm Yonge Gym should be demolished. However, he did call spending money on the aging building not a responsible use of tax dollars.
“I’m not a legal professional, so I’m not going to speak to the pluses and minuses, pros and cons of all of that,” he said. “Obviously, they’re keeping us briefed, but I can speak philosophically that we continue to proceed as the council has voted.”
He said previous councils had avoided doing the maintenance the aging facility needed and chose to lease it instead. “As a matter of fact, almost to the day, I think it was Feb. 22, maybe three years ago, when some of the current members and former members of the council were having this conversation about leasing to Lighthouse (Private Christian Academy), and that $15,000 a year in maintenance in their contract was never going to be enough to fix it.”
The mayor continued, “Everyone was fully aware of that, and so the definition of kicking the can down the road is what happened. That’s what took place, and here we are. That isn’t a mayor’s decision. We’ve kicked the can off the cliff to a $3 million bill. It was a day that was going to come at some point.”
He didn’t name former council members Ann Hill and Sherri Myers, who signed the affidavit calling for a referendum when he added, “And while there’re former council members that want this day to continue, the reality is I cannot irresponsibly use the taxpayer dollar in the way that’s being suggested here.”
In 2020 and 2021, when the Pensacola City Council discussed then-Mayor Grover Robinson’s request to declare the gym surplus, then-Councilwoman Hill supported keeping the building and leasing it to Lighthouse Private Christian Academy because it helps at-risk children.
“The group of 10 (who signed the affidavit), those are not people who live anywhere close to this building,” Reeves said. “And so, we are not hearing some outcry from the neighborhood about using this building because, frankly, they weren’t using the building. One private organization was using the building. So, you’re not going to hear that, because that’s not what was happening.”
The mayor wasn’t moved by the quote from FRP Construction that developer Fred Gunther had. The Arizona-based company quoted James B. Washington Education & Sports, Inc. $239,500 to reinforce the arches that support the gym’s roof. A limited inspection by a structural engineer determined the arches were near failure, which led to the city canceling its lease with Lighthouse and signing the demolition contract.
However, Reeves questioned the developer’s motives. “Fred Gunther knocked down the YMCA to put up eight $900,000 houses downtown, and it was a more historic structure. I think it was built in 1951. He also acquired property from the YMCA out in Myrtle Grove that was intended to be affordable housing. That’s still empty today.”
In September 2019, former Mayor Robinson had Charles Sherrill, Jr. appraise the gym site. Sherrill estimated the total value to be $870,000, with $780,000 for the land and $90,000 for the building and other improvements. Mayor Reeves said if a referendum passes and the CRA deems it surplus property, he will make it available to the highest bidder.
“I’m saying let’s use this $800,000- $900,000 of property as a subsidy to create affordable housing. That’s my intent, not just a surplus to the highest bidder,” the mayor said. “But if there’s a discussion to be made about preserving a building or putting money into it on the private side, we will then let the CRA board decide that that’s what they want to do. And then we’ll surplus it, and we’ll make sure that the taxpayer is treated responsibly.”
Shifting Gym Funds In 2020, the Pensacola City Council voted 7-0 not to repair the Malcolm Yonge Gym and reallocate $715,000 to refurbish Magee Field. Councilwoman Ann Hill made the initial motion to shift the funds.
Soon after she took office, Councilwoman Jennifer Brahier faced a vote concerning whether Malcolm Yonge Gym should be declared surplus property and sold.
“When I look back at my first vote on this exact building, I think I was swayed by that kind of emotion that I just didn’t want to see this building go,” Brahier said on WCOA this morning. “And so, I have my own guilt in passing the vote in getting us to where we are in helping kick that can down the road.”
She reviewed past agenda packets and viewed videos of meetings held before she took office in November 2020 to “get a better picture of what has landed us right where we are now.”
She found the Pensacola City Council once had $715,000 in the 2020-2021 budget to repair the gym. Brahier said, “On Sept. 9, 2020, Councilwoman Hill had made a motion to move the $715,000 to Magee Field instead of being at Malcolm Yonge.”
The minutes show the council voted 3-3 and didn’t pass the motion. Jewel Cannada-Wynn, Jared Moore and Hill voted “yes,” and John Jerralds, Sherri Myers and P.C. Wu voted “no.” Myers wanted the money allocated to Tippin Park, and Mayor Robinson asked for more time to review the proposal.
Hill and Myers recently signed the affidavit for a petition drive that would require a citywide referendum on the council’s vote to demolish the gym.
Brahier said, “Then it came back a couple weeks later as a change in the actual budget. So, the $715,000 was moved fully to Magee Field, and that passed with a 7-0 on Sept. 23, 2020.”
She added, “At the time, the conversation was about where city programs existed, and in those discussions, Councilwoman Jewel Cannada-Wynn had pointed out that the exodus from Malcolm Young had been a long time before, and the parks director at the time stated that I believe it was less than 10% of the usage was by the general public.”
Inweekly reviewed the same council meetings and found that while she voted to fund repairs of the aging gym, Councilwoman Hill did not want the city to get rid of the building. She argued to keep the gym for Lighthouse Private Christian Academy’s use because they helped at-risk youth.
The city’s historic preservation planner, Gregg Harding, found the gym had no historical significance, and Councilwoman Myers believed no one would pay the appraised value for the property, $870,000, but if someone did, she wanted the proceeds spent on Tippin Park, where committed city staff to build a community center and athletic field for special needs individuals.