Hundreds of people who say they suffered physical or sexual abuse at two state-run reform schools in Florida are in line to receive tens of thousands of dollars in restitution from the state, after Florida lawmakers formally apologized for the horrors they endured as children more than 50 years ago.
At its peak in the Jim Crow 1960s, 500 boys were housed at what is now known as the Dozier School for Boys, most of them for minor offenses such as petty theft, truancy or running away from home. Orphaned and abandoned children were also sent to the school, which was open for more than a century.
In recent years, hundreds of men have come forward to recount brutal beatings, sexual assaults, deaths and disappearances at the notorious school in the panhandle town of Marianna. Nearly 100 boys died between 1900 and 1973 at Dozier, some of them from gunshot wounds or blunt force trauma. Some of the boys' bodies were shipped back home. Others were buried in unmarked graves that researchers only recently uncovered.
Ahead of a Dec. 31 deadline, the state of Florida received more than 800 applications for restitution from people held at the Dozier school and its sister school in Okeechobee, Fla., attesting to the mental, physical and sexual abuse they endured at the hands of school personnel. Last year, state lawmakers allocated $20 million to be equally divided among the schools’ surviving victims.
Bryant Middleton was among those who spoke publicly in 2017, when lawmakers formally acknowledged the abuse. Middleton recalled being beaten six times for infractions that included eating blackberries off a fence and mispronouncing a teacher’s name after being sent to Dozier between 1959 and 1961.
“I’ve seen a lot in my lifetime. A lot of brutality, a lot of horror, a lot of death,” said Middleton, who served more than 20 years in the Army, including combat in Vietnam. “I would rather be sent back into the jungles of Vietnam than to spend one single day at the Florida School for Boys.”
Allegations of abuse have hung over the Dozier school since soon after it opened in 1900, with reports of children being chained to the walls in irons. When then-Gov. Claude Kirk visited in 1968, he found the institution in disrepair with leaky ceilings, holes in walls, no heating for the winters and buckets used as toilets.
“If one of your kids were kept in such circumstances,” Kirk said then, “you’d be up there with rifles.”
Florida officials closed Dozier in 2011, following state and federal investigations and news reports documenting the abuses.
As the men who were victimized at the schools wait for restitution, their resilience is being honored in the new film “Nickel Boys”, which was adapted from Colson Whitehead's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. Whitehead has said Dozier served as the model for the book, which he hopes raises awareness “so that the victims and their stories are not forgotten.”
FILE - In this July 13, 2011 photo, the buildings that housed the Dozier School for Boys. (AP Photo/Brendan Farrington, File)
SUZUKA, Japan (AP) — Yuki Tsunoda finally has his promotion at Red Bull. That was difficult enough, elevated to the top team last week as Liam Lawson was demoted to Red Bull's No. 2 Formula 1 team — Racing Bulls — after failing to score points in the season's first two races.
Delivering will be even tougher as Tsunoda joins a long list of Japanese drivers with varying degrees of success in F1. His first Grand Prix for Red Bull is on Sunday in Japan.
Tsunoda faces pressure before adoring home fans, is another Japanese driver trying to crack through, and bears the weight of racing alongside four-time F1 champion Max Verstappen.
What advice has Red Bull team principal Christian Horner given him?
“Be close as much as possible to Max,” Tsunoda said Thursday at the Suzuka track. He described as “brutal” not being chosen initially by Red Bull for this season, but looked relaxed taking question about this abrupt promotion.
“I'm not saying I'm confident that I can perform straight away like Max,” he added. But he said he was confident he could produce well compared with “other drivers” Red Bull might have chosen.
Lawson also appeared relaxed, smiling as he took questions about his demotion.
"It's something I wasn't expecting,” Lawson said. “It's something that obviously is not my decision and for me it's about making the best of it.”
Lawson attributed part of doing poorly in his first two races with Red Bull to unfamiliar tracks in Australia and China. He'd been hoping to prove himself in Japan, where he drove last season in F1.
This time it will be with Racing Bulls and not Red Bull.
“This is what I was looking forward to from the start, to be honest,” he said, referring to the Suzuka circuit in central Japan. "To a track that I've been to before and just have a proper sort of preparation. It's a track we all like a drivers.”
This is Tsunoda's fifth season in F1, and he needs to deliver points for Red Bull. His best career finish was fourth place in Abu Dhabi in 2021. He's finished out of the points with Racing Bulls in the first two Grand Prix races this season, but placed sixth in the sprint race almost two weeks ago in China.
Red Bull's car this weekend will run with a white paint job, a tribute to automaker Honda. Verstappen has won four consecutive titles with Honda power. This is Red Bull's last season with Honda, moving next year to Ford. Honda moves to power Aston Martin next season.
This is his best chance, and Tsunoda will have to excel to stay with Red Bull. Not just for this season, but for next.
Almost 20 Japanese drivers have competed and none has won an F1 race. Japanese have reached the podium only three times in F1. And all were third-place finishes.
Aguri Suzuki was the first to reach the podium, finishing third in the 1990 Japanese GP.
Kamui Kobayashi was third in the 2012 Japanese Grand Prix driving with Sauber and has scored more points in F1 than any Japanese driver.
Takuma Sato managed a third in the 2004 U.S. Grand Prix. He is also a two-time winner of the Indianapolis 500.
McLaren has won the first two races — Lando Norris in Australia and Oscar Piastri in China — in a field that looks tightly bunched.
Norris leads the driver standings with 44 points, followed by Verstappen with 36 and George Russell of Mercedes with 35. Piastri is one point back with 34.
Seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton, who joined Ferrari this season after departing Mercedes, has only nine points. He was 10th in Australia and was disqualified in China following postrace scrutineering. His best result so far is a win in the sprint race in China.
Hamilton has won five times in Japan, and his Ferrari team has vowed to fix the mistakes that saw Hamilton and teammate Charles Leclerc disqualified in China.
AP Formula 1: https://apnews.com/hub/formula-one
Red Bull driver Yuki Tsunoda of Japan responds to a journalist's question during a news conference at the Suzuka Circuit in Suzuka, central Japan, Thursday, April 3, 2025, ahead Sunday's Japanese Formula One Grand Prix race. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae)
Red Bull driver Yuki Tsunoda of Japan, center, flanked by Kick Sauber driver Nico Hulkenberg of Germany, left, and Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc of Monaco, responds to a journalist's question during a news conference at the Suzuka Circuit in Suzuka, central Japan, Thursday, April 3, 2025, ahead Sunday's Japanese Formula One Grand Prix race. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae)
Red Bull driver Yuki Tsunoda of Japan responds to a journalist's question during a news conference at the Suzuka Circuit in Suzuka, central Japan, Thursday, April 3, 2025, ahead Sunday's Japanese Formula One Grand Prix race. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae)
FILE - RB driver Yuki Tsunoda of Japan talks at a press conference during a Formula One pre-season test at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir, Bahrain, Friday, Feb. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic, File)
FILE - RB driver Yuki Tsunoda of Japan, celebrates his third place after the qualifying session ahead of the Brazilian Formula One Grand Prix at the Interlagos race track, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Sunday, Nov. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Ettore Chiereguini, File)
Red Bull driver Yuki Tsunoda of Japan performs a demonstration run during an event in Tokyo, ahead of the Japanese Formula 1 Grand Prix, Wednesday, April 2, 2025.(Kyodo News via AP)
Red Bull driver Yuki Tsunoda of Japan performs a demonstration run during an event in Tokyo, ahead of the Japanese Formula 1 Grand Prix, Wednesday, April 2, 2025.(Kyodo News via AP)
Red Bull driver Yuki Tsunoda of Japan smiles during a press conference in Tokyo, ahead of the Japanese Formula 1 Grand Prix, Wednesday, April 2, 2025.(Kyodo News via AP)
