Bryant Middleton stopped for a moment to pick a couple of blackberries. Richard Huntly took a sip from the water fountain without seeking permission. Roger Kiser uttered a mild expletive after taking a tumble on a diving board.
For those minor transgressions all three were lashed dozens of times with a three-foot long leather strap with a piece of metal embedded in it.
Middleton, Huntly and Kiser are among the lucky ones. They survived to tell their tales of abuse at Florida's notorious Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys — many others did not. Some 82 bodies are believed to have been discovered on the now-closed school's site. No one seriously believes others won't be found.
Authorities in Florida announced last week that they may have found 27 new graves on the site in the Panhandle town of Marianna, putting a new focus on the scandal that enveloped the school. Middleton says he has a list of 138 boys who remain unaccounted for.
Some of the boys died from severe beatings. 'It's a pain that no man can explain or express,' Huntly, 73, said in an interview with DailyMail.com. 'It was like a charge to your brain, like it set your brain on fire. It's a fire inside of you that has no escape.
'When I was being beaten it was like I had to holler inside of me. You are panting, you're praying, you're crying and you're screaming inside of you, trying to time the lick so I could tighten up my body at the right time to try to lessen the pain but it is too excruciating to do that.'
Authorities in Florida announced last week that they may have found 27 new graves at Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys in the Panhandle town of Marianna, putting a new focus on the scandal that enveloped the school. Pictured: African-American boys stand solemnly during a memorial or funeral service at the reform school in the 1950s
Roger Kiser, 73, is one of the lucky ones. He survived to tell his tale of abuse at the notorious reform school — while many others did not
Bryant Middleton (left) and Richard Huntly (right) are also survivors, attending the facility in the 1950s. They recalled the times they were severely beaten. Middleton for stopping to pick a couple of blackberries to eat and Huntly for taking a sip from the water fountain without seeking permission
Last week, the possible graves were discovered by ground penetrating radar during a clean-up of the site. Some 82 bodies are believed to have been discovered since the school's closure in 2011. Pictured: Crosses mark graves at the cemetery of the shuttered reform school in 2012
Dozier was the major reformed school in Florida for more than a century. It opened in 1900 and finally closed its doors in 2011.
Many who were sent there had landed in minor trouble with the law and were ordered to the school by a judge. Other times it was because the boys were orphans and had nowhere else to go.
Either way, countless boys from age 8 upward went in. Somewhat fewer came out alive.
Last week, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis promised the recent discovery of the graves will be 'handled with the utmost sensitivity and care.'
Kiser (pictured) never knew his parents and went to Marianna from a Jacksonville orphanage
The possible human graves were found by ground penetrating radar used during a clean-up of the site. It found anomalies 'consistent with possible graves' outside the cemetery where other bodies are buried.
But some bodies may not even have been buried - some could have been cremated.
'The races were strictly segregated,' Kiser remembered. 'The only time I ever spoke to a black boy there, there was a plume of foul-smelling smoke coming from the chimney. I asked him what it was.'
'Well, they sure ain't cooking pizza,' the African-American replied.
Kiser is convinced the authorities were cremating a body.
All the boys were made to work. Kiser was an orderly in the school's hospital. One day after finishing his shift he was ordered to return.
He saw a boy, probably eight or nine years old, lying in the bathtub. He had tried to escape and authorities had called in the 'dog boys' — prisoners from nearby Apalachee State Prison.
'They hunted him down and the dogs had just torn him to pieces,' Kiser, now 73, told DailyMail.com. He was told the school doctor was on his way, but he never came.
When he questioned where the doctor was, the nurse told him with a resigned look on her face: 'There's nothing more we can do for that boy.'
Trying to escape from the 159-acre campus just off Interstate 10 was considered the worst crime a boy could commit.
When the 'dog boys' caught a runaway they would often sexually abuse him.
Dozier was the major reformed school in Florida for more than a century. It opened in 1900 and finally closed its doors in 2011. Pictured above is a rotting dormitory where boys would sleep
Many who were sent to Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys, had landed in trouble with the law and were ordered to go by a judge, other times it was because they were orphans and had nowhere to go. Either way, countless boys from age 8 upward went in. Somewhat fewer came out alive
These haunting images show abandoned classrooms, laden with towering piles of plastic school chairs. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has promised the recent discovery of the graves on the grounds will be 'handled with the utmost sensitivity and care'
The school failed to record burial locations for 22 other children who researchers learned died on the site. Six of the children - and two adults - died in a fire. Several more were killed in an influenza outbreak in the early 1900s. Some boys died under unknown circumstances, according to relatives
Both Huntly and Kiser said it was well known that they would lift the tail of the dog that caught the runaway and make the boy kiss the dog's anus.
Middleton, Huntly and Kiser were all at the school in the late 1950s when it was still known as the Florida School for Boys. It was later renamed after a former director.
Punishment was meted out in a small squat building known as the White House. Kiser, now 73, remembers the first time he realized how bad it was. Two boys had been sent there.
'That night in the shower line I couldn't believe what I saw,' he said. 'They were bloody on their buttocks and down the backs of their legs. It was like hamburger meat.'
But worse was to come. The next day he was told to report to the superintendent's office. It was time for his first beating.
'I was told that I had been written up because I had said the word 's**t' when I slipped on the diving board at the pool,' Kiser explained.
He and four other boys marched to the White House, but he tripped as he got to the door.
'The man behind me grabbed me by the back of the shirt and slugged me as hard as he could in the back of the neck. My face hit the floor, bloodying my nose.
'Then he jerked me backwards and the top button on my shirt fell off and, in slow motion, I watched it roll down the hallway.'
Punishment was meted out in this small squat building known as the White House (pictured). A group of survivors call themselves the White House Boys after the building where they say they suffered horrible abuse
Huntly stands inside the punishment room in the White House. Huntly, who is writing his second book on his experience at Marianna, went back to the White House last year when it was finally sealed up. He saw bloody handmarks on the wall (seen on the left)
Huntly's first beating came after he fought a boy who he said was making sexual advances. The punishment was 'awful,' he said. The boys would count each other's lashings. 'You can't count them yourself because of the pain is excruciating,' Huntly said. He was told he got 43 licks on his first visit to the punishment house
'They called us in one at a time, I was last. I could hear the others screaming, yelling, begging for their mothers, said Kiser, who detailed his experiences in a book called The White House Boys — An American Tragedy.
'Then it was my
