George Owen Smith - 1940

This is an odd post for this blog. Normally a post appears on the yearday the child died, but we don't know what date poor 14 year old George Owen Smith died.

We also don't know how George Owen Smith died.

All we know is that he was found in an unmarked grave at the now closed Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys.

Think about his family for all those years didn't know where to go with their grief over losing a son and a brother. His mother was denied this for her entire life.

Of course he committed a crime and deserved some kind of punishment. But not even in Florida they have a death penalty for stealing a car.

The questions are:

• How did he die?
• Why were his body hidden from his family?

According to survivors a lot of boys were beaten almost to their deaths at the so-called white house. Maybe the guards went too far in their introduction ceremony to the reform school and buried the boy to hide their crime? It is most likely the explanation.

Now the family can meet around a marked grave as his body has been relocated to the family grave. Unfortunately not everyone in his family lived to see this day. They died before the truth about his destiny was learned.

Maybe the spirit of George Owen Smith will now find peace.

More than 50 bodies found on the campus of the reform school still are unidentified. We can only hope that they also will identified so they can be reunited with their families.

Sources:

• Boy's remains identified from shuttered Florida reform school (CBS News)
• Factsheet about the reform school (Fornits Wiki)
• 94 (1000 places You don't want to be as a teenager)

Carey Dunn - 1988

It is hardly to believe that the very boarding school where she was forced and where she met her death continues to exist today just because there are no federal oversight in the United States.

It all started out in California where welthy parents who had spent their teenage years in the 1960 was suddenly parents and began to be afraid that their children would live the same kind of teenage life with free choices but also a lot of temptations. They sought for a religious safe haven and some believed to have found it at Victory Christian Academy.

The boarding school was an old military station and it needed a lot of repair. To save money the girls was put into work between the prayers and corporal punishment. Work without the necessary training and safety equipment.

A part of the building fell over Carey Dunn and she died. Because it was so-called troubled teenagers the staff was handling, the police investigation did not end up in anyone being sent to prison. Troubled teenagers don't count as others. Instead the staff and owners was told to cross the statelines so California could wash their hands.

Today the boarding school is operating near Jay in Florida. A new name has been taken for marketing purposes. Otherwise it is very much the same curriculum and daily rutines which are offered.

If you want to know more about Victory Christian Academy, you can buy the book Reform at Victory, which have been written by a survivor of this boarding school.

References:
Victims in 1980's (Fornits Home for Wayward Web Fora Wiki)
Victory Christian Academy - Genesis By The Sea (Ripoffreport)
Research on Tough Love, Christian "Reform Schools", The connection between Palmer and Roloff (Girls of Victory Christian Academy News and Updates)