Former staffer at Florida School for Boys deposed. Says discipline was "state-approved protocol"

MARIANNA | They say Troy Tidwell drew blood. They say he dragged the boys to a tiny building on the campus of the Florida School for Boys in Marianna, made them bite a pillow and hit them so hard with a leather strap that they feel it 50 years later.

They say he enjoyed it.

More than 200 former students of the state-run reform school, now in their 50s, 60s and 70s, accuse Tidwell in a class-action lawsuit of abuse. They tell of picking underwear from their lacerations and being black and blue from their thighs to their backs. For the first time since the men told their stories publicly in October, Tidwell was made to face the allegations.

Troy Tidwell admits using leather strap but says no law broken.

Tidwell was the focus of a St. Petersburg Times report called 'For Their Own Good,' which documented a history of abuse at the school, now known as the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys. Since the article was published last month, dozens more men have told similar stories of being abused by Tidwell and other school employees.

..."Bryant Middleton was sitting a few seats from Tidwell during the four hours of testimony. Middleton, sent to the school in 1959 for incorrigibility, said Tidwell wouldn't look him in the eye.

'He inflicted so much harm on me that it totally changed my life,' Middleton, 64, said after the deposition. 'I was brutally hurt, physically and emotionally. For him to say he never hurt anybody, well, he hurt me.'

It was a band of former residents from 50 years ago, now calling themselves "The White House Boys," who pressed Crist to act in December. More than 200 former residents have signed on to sue the state — prompting Thursday's deposition of former houseparent Troy Tidwell. A recent investigation by the St. Petersburg Times found that individually and collectively, former residents' stories strike similarly horrible and chilling themes of physical abuse and possible death.

Grown men, many of whom have struggled to build a life in the wake of Dozier, told reporters life at the North Florida school could include strap whippings in a low concrete white building that left blood on the walls, and sexual abuse in an underground "rape room." Their accounts included witnessing boys trapped inside running clothes dryers, orders to dig child-size graves and friends who disappeared after being hauled off to the "white house."

But FDLE steered clear of much of that emotional testimony — and did not interview one of the key leaders of the White House Boys group. The agency took the most literal interpretation of Crist's charge to investigate the school's unmarked graves. Using official records and newspaper reports, which the agency conceded were incomplete and deteriorated, investigators said it appears that 31 people are buried there, all 31 appear accounted for in written records and no deaths appear to be suspicious.

But the agency didn't exhume any bodies nor utilize ground-penetrating radar to discern if more could be buried there. And while the agency acknowledges the written records made it impossible to ascertain the location of burial sites, it appears little weight was given to the fact that the official records would have been maintained by the alleged torturers themselves. The result is a report that reads more like a possible defense argument for the state than an investigation that considered alternative outcomes.

THE WHITE HOUSE PLAQUE

"In memory of the children who passed these doors, we acknowledge
their tribulations and offer our hope that they have found some
measure of peace.

May this building stand as a reminder of the need to remain vigilant
in protecting our children as we help them to seek a brighter future.

Moreover, we offer the reassurance that we are dedicated to serving
and protecting the youth who enter this campus, and helping them
to transform their lives.”

The Whitehouse
Officially Sealed
by the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice
October 21, 2008

My father was Dr. Isadore Wexler, the physician at FSB from 1960 to 1970. My mother, Rella Wexler, was the
executive secretary for the school’s superintendent (first, Arthur Dozier, then David Walters). Our family lived on the
grounds during the ten-year time period. As a high school student, I regularly assisted my father in the campus
clinic and his office.

My father’s specialty was penal institution medicine. His career included the Kentucky Institute for the Criminally
Insane, Sing Sing Prison (New York), and Norfolk State Prison (a maximum security facility in Massachusetts). Over
the years, he spoke regularly and graphically about what he did—and saw—in these settings. I grew up hearing
about everything from his treatment of rat-bitten prisoners chained in a dungeon to his official duty of viewing and
verifying deaths by electric chair.

During my father’s tenure at FSB, I became aware that “strappings” (this is what it was called in the 1960s)
occurred, although I’m not sure who told me. My sister and I were told to stay away from the “white house.”

..."In fact, shortly after my father came to the school, he had a confrontation with Superintendent Dozier about the
boys going shoeless on the work crews. He treated so many foot injuries that he insisted the boys be required to
wear shoes or boots. Mr. Dozier told my father that would ruin the “beloved image of the barefoot boy in the South.”
If this type of injury was sufficient to annoy a physician—even one who had seen much worse—I cannot imagine
him remaining silent about ongoing brutal beatings during the time he cared for the 800 boys.

The men who now insist they were so badly abused at the school certainly did not have a pleasant experience
there. I cannot comment on their motives for waiting this length of time before coming forward. However, they
deserve the right to see their allegations thoroughly investigated.