Dozier School survivors tell stories of abuse

ORLANDO, Florida. – After 16 years of lobbying, Paul Elgin and his group, the White House Boys, saw their efforts bear fruit.

Elgin and other members of the group attended the notorious Dozier School for Boys. Elgin was there from October 1964 to October 1965.

Last week, Elgin drove to Tallahassee to watch Governor Ron DeSantis sign House Bill 21.

The bill, which is set to take effect on July 1, establishes the Dozier School for Boys and the Okeechobee School victim compensation programs.

The law provides for the allocation of $20 million from the general state budget to compensate living persons who attended Dozier or Okeechobee reformatory institutions between 1940 and 1975.

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In addition, the Commissioner of Education is permitted to award survivors a regular high school diploma.

“I didn’t commit a crime. I ran away from home and wouldn’t listen to my stepfather,” Elgin said.

For this reason, his family decided to send him to this school. However, Elgin stressed that if they had known what was going on on campus, they would never have done it.

Elgin said he doesn’t blame his family.

As he drove to the school, he was impressed by its appearance, Elgin said, comparing it to a country club.

His optimism quickly changed after he witnessed and experienced physical abuse.

He explained why the group he is currently in is called “White House Boys.”

“The White House, let me explain, it’s a little white building where they beat the boys,” Elgin said.

School staff took Elgin there after he made a mistake while working in the kitchen.

“I gave one of my friends syrup for his pancakes, I didn’t know it was employee syrup,” Elgin said. “So they reprimanded me for giving him syrup.”

Elgin and a boy were waiting in the White House when they heard another boy screaming in the next room.

“We lost control. I looked at him and said I’m not going in there,” Elgin said.

Unfortunately, he had no other choice.

“I was next and they told me to grab the bars, the bed rails, the pillow, that nasty pillow, and if you let go we’ll start again at one,” Elgin said. “He spanked me so hard my bottom looked like mincemeat and was so numb, I thought he was done, but then he decided to go after my legs.”

Elgin said he was hit more than 35 times with a metal-filled leather strap.

“I couldn’t get up and needed help getting out of bed,” Elgin said.

That wasn’t the only time he was beaten. Elgin said he was taken to the White House a second time after he was caught smoking.

Elgin and his family have been living with this for decades.

News 6 reporter Treasure Roberts asked if he had contacted his parents after the incident.

“If you did that, that’s the last thing you want to do because a lot of boys didn’t get out of there, they were killed there,” Elgin said.

An excavation on the Dozier School grounds uncovered human remains in 55 unmarked graves, some with gunshot wounds or signs of blunt force trauma.

Although Elgin is proud of the law, he says the money will not heal the physical and psychological trauma.

Despite the victory in Parliament and the horrifying discovery of human remains on the grounds of the Dozier School, Elgin is convinced that reparations can never fully make up for the past.

“That can never be enough for what we and the families have been through,” he said.

For survivors to receive compensation, they must file a claim and prove that they attended the school and that they were abused. The money cannot go to the survivor’s estate.

The application must be submitted by December 31, 2024.

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