More than two dozen possible graves found at the Florida Reform School

April 12, 2019, 16:48 GMT

By Minyvonne Burke

More than two dozen possible graves have been discovered on the site, a reputable school of reform for boys in Florida – years after researchers discovered about fifty unmarked tombs in the city's precinct. school.

A contracted firm with Geosyntec Consultants, Inc. was working on the property of the Arthur G. Dozier Boys' School in Marianna, Florida, when she discovered 27 "anomalies" that could be burial sites .

The pits were discovered 165 meters from the school graveyard thanks to a penetrating ground radar that was used to explore the area, according to a report from Mar. 26 sent by Geosyntec to the Department of Protection's 39; Florida environment.

"Several sources of evidence indicate that there are unmarked graves outside the known cemetery on the campus of the school, but their exact location has not been determined", indicates the report.

Geosyntec was commissioned in 2017 by the state's environmental protection department to clean the area as part of the agency's oil restoration program. Geosyntec hired a subcontractor to survey the field, given the "history of the site," says the letter.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis wrote a letter asking state officials to help Jackson County officials investigate the findings and said he wanted "to ensure that this issue be treated with the greatest sensitivity and care. "

The governor's office said Friday at NBC News that the investigation was still ongoing and that there was "no confirmation or clarity as to the nature of these anomalies".

The school, one of the country's largest reform institutions, closed in June 2011 after the United States Department of Justice Civil Justice Division confirmed that students had been mistreated. It opened in 1900.

The property was returned to Jackson County in 2018, the county commission office said in a statement. Since the acquisition of the site, the county is trying to rebuild it in hopes that it will become a "beacon of industry and commerce".

In 2013, anthropologists and archaeologists from the University of South Florida were given permission to search about fifty unmarked graves in the school as a result of reports stating that they were in danger. mysterious abuse and deaths involving students.

Several men who attended school while they were young boys claimed that they had been savagely beaten with leather thongs by administrators and staff. Others have related how some students had been beaten to death.