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There were references to people who supposed something had happened other than what was reported.

Here is one:
“But Glen Varnadoe, Thomas’ nephew, had a theory on how Thomas died, and it didn’t involve pneumonia. “I believe he was beaten to death.” Glen said.”

Might be true, might not, but it is a supposition.

Here is another, of a buy who died in his own home after running away from the reformatory:

“His family remembered that authorities said he shot himself with a 12-gauge shotgun, found nearby, but they think he was killed by somebody looking for him.”

They may have been right, maybe not.

When I read the articles from the Tampay Bay Times, I missed much of the first article, because of the way they are displayed. The two quotes above are from the second article. The first article is where hundreds of former reformatory residents told stories of being beaten.

Stories from multiple victims over several decades is not supposition. It is first hand information, but it is far from testimony in a court of law. Those with the stories certainly have an axe to grind.

In 1918 with a population of 220 inmates, 11 died of influenza during the influenza epidemic that was world wide. 8 dide in a fire in 1914. There were records for 98 deaths

The school existed for 110 years. A lot of that happened when the country was far, far poorer than it is now.

I do not know how many people passed through this institution. But in 1918 it had a population of 220. It appears the population grew significantly.

Say 220 times 100 years. That would be 22,000 residents as a very rough estimate.

We have a strong victim mentality in this country. Some of the locals were indignant about the charges. It is very easy to make claims about mistreatment from 50 years ago.

My suspicion is that there was a fair amount of abuse in those sort of institutions 50 and a hundred years ago.

If you look all around the world, you see it happens. The poorer the country, the worse the abuse.

Careful record keeping, multiple, frequent inspections, lawyers assigned to each case, all these things cost scarce resources.

I do not doubt that there were abuses. But the amount of abuse, taken over more than a century, is probably not too far from the norm for such institutions at the time.

The proper comparison is to other institutions at the time, performing the same functions.

What we see is a comparison with perfection.

It is what the left does. They demand utopia. Utopia is not an option.

This whole series of articles is written in tear-jerker mode to make Western Civilization look bad.

In fact, we did more, and faster, than nearly every other country in the world, to limit these sorts of abuses.

That fact is never brought forth in the article, and it should be. That would be some balance and historical perspective.

Here is another view by a local historian and author:

“The remains were dug up over the objections of a circuit judge, the state archaeologist and Florida’s Secretary of State in a frenzy of publicity that was often generated by the university’s own media experts. Despite claims by former students that hundreds of bodies would be found in multiple cemeteries on the campus of the former reform school in Marianna, the only remains located were buried in coffins in a 75’ by 100’ area of the known cemetery. All were buried in coffins according to religious and mortuary standards of the early 20th century.

University researchers noted in a report to the Florida Cabinet earlier this year that they had found no evidence of crimes involving the graves.”

http://www.jacksoncountytimes.net/local-news/itemlist/user/2051-dale-cox.html