The University of South Florida will begin digging for human remains from the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys in Marianna on Saturday. The work on the unmarked graves outside the closed Panhandle reform will be the first in a series of excavations.
The first dig will last through Tuesday.
USF researchers have a one-year window to search the grounds for the reportedly unaccounted-for bodies of boys said to have died at the school between 1900 and 1952.
State Representative Alan Williams says it’s time for the truth about Dozier to come out.
“In order to move forward, you have to correct some of the past misgivings and the missteps that the state has done”, Williams said.
The dig was approved by Governor Rick Scott and the Florida Cabinet earlier this month.
The Legislature had approved $190,000 for research to determine the causes of death, identify remains, locate family members and pay for any re-burials.
Researchers have been investigating the school, which at one time encompassed 1,400 acres, to resolve whether boys there could have been killed and buried on the grounds.