Former residents of the Florida School for Boys say beatings took place in this building, called the "white house." CNN followed up on their recent story about the Florida School for Boys, detailing the legacy of abuse through the story of one family.
Edward attended the school in the early 1960s. He told his wife, Elizabeth, and son, Chris, that he was regularly beaten and sexually abused by the guards. At one point some students were trying to escape. A guard gave a gun to Edward, and ordered him to shoot.
"They made him line up outside of a fence and said that when they turn the lights on, to shoot whoever was at the fence," Chris said. "When they turned the lights on, there was some black kids trying to get out of the fence, and they gave my dad a .22 rifle."
Chris said his father told him he shot one of the boys in the face.
Edward eventually drank himself to death in 1983. He also was violently abusive to his wife and son. They still struggle to deal with the abuse today.
"We were the ripple ... effect of their abuse on my husband, his abuse on us," Elizabeth said, her eyes brimming with tears.
"If they hadn't done to him what they did, he never would have done what he did to me, which shaped my whole life," she said.
"The way he felt so unloved, like he had been thrown away, the anger, the hurt all the time, the drinking," she explained. "The abuse that we went through."
"I'd like the people that did it to pay for it," Chris said. "To be honest, I'd like to do it myself."
Through the years, they never believed Edward's story, but recent news reports that detailed claims of abuse at the reform school have made it easier, they say, to stop blaming themselves.
Would Be Killer by Gnarls Barkley
Hurt people, hurt people/This is always how/ Oh I've been entered by evil/ So someone best love me right now...
"They made him line up outside of a fence and said that when they turn the lights on, to shoot whoever was at the fence," Chris said. "When they turned the lights on, there was some black kids trying to get out of the fence, and they gave my dad a .22 rifle."
Chris said his father told him he shot one of the boys in the face.
Edward eventually drank himself to death in 1983. He also was violently abusive to his wife and son. They still struggle to deal with the abuse today.
"We were the ripple ... effect of their abuse on my husband, his abuse on us," Elizabeth said, her eyes brimming with tears.
"If they hadn't done to him what they did, he never would have done what he did to me, which shaped my whole life," she said.
"The way he felt so unloved, like he had been thrown away, the anger, the hurt all the time, the drinking," she explained. "The abuse that we went through."
"I'd like the people that did it to pay for it," Chris said. "To be honest, I'd like to do it myself."
Through the years, they never believed Edward's story, but recent news reports that detailed claims of abuse at the reform school have made it easier, they say, to stop blaming themselves.
Would Be Killer by Gnarls Barkley
Hurt people, hurt people/This is always how/ Oh I've been entered by evil/ So someone best love me right now...
4 comments:
Very fitting way to end the entry - that quote sums it up: Hurt people hurt people. Great work here.
Thanks so much...and yeah, so true...
My parents still don't believe that I endured severe beatings, monstrous sexual abuse and unspeakable mental abuse. They still donate money to New Horizons. The staff at esquela caribe totally screwed my life up. The staff at the bording school in Marion In. screwed my life up as well. That is where I was raped repeatedly in the fire / furness room. His name is Leeroy Hammond. Can I sue this organization for destroying my life?
My parents still don't believe that I endured severe beatings, monstrous sexual abuse and unspeakable mental abuse. They still donate money to New Horizons. The staff at esquela caribe totally screwed my life up. The staff at the bording school in Marion In. screwed my life up as well. That is where I was raped repeatedly in the fire / furness room. His name is Leeroy Hammond. Can I sue this organization for destroying my life?
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