This case/ story was astonishing to read knowing how bad these innocent children suffered. These children were taken away and sent to the Okeechobee Reform School to help them become better individuals; however the complete opposite happened. According to the article “Sheriff investigates claims of 'torture,' killings at Okeechobee reform school” by Ben Montgomery states “They sent him to live at the Florida School for Boys at Okeechobee, a brand-new state-run facility for troubled kids and orphans and wards of the state.”(Montgomery, 2014), how was it determined if the child was troubled? Let me rewind… the article mentions Joseph Johnson age 12 at the time walking down the street with blood stained on the back of his shirt. The deputy…show more content… These are children regardless what mental issues they faced or behavior issues. I feel the guards abused their power in the Reform school and it got out of hand because no one will checked in or followed up on them. Truly, sad that innocent lives were lost at such a young with no hope of ever returning to a normal life. On the other hand the people who committed these horrendous acts also have to live with that for the rest of their lives. I am a firm believer that we do not have to answer to anyone when we are alive. It is the man upstairs once we pass on is the one we have to answer…show more content… In that Era it was okay to punish your child and in fact hit your child. Law enforcement was not involved in abuse of children as much as they are today. If they were the Okeechobee Reform incident would have not occurred to the extent it sadly did. However, let’s look at this aspect: Yes, our criminal justice system has changed in the sense of abuse, neglect etc is punishable. However, what happens when a child gets taken away from a family because the parent is accused of neglect because the child did not want to go to school. Who should be punished? The child is obviously being punished because he or she is being removed from the family that is “suppose” to love and care about them and sent to a home etc. The parents are being punished by losing their child and being fined with potential jail time. As in one case in Pennsylvania a women was sentenced to two days in jail because of her son’s unwillingness to attend school. She suffered a medical emergency and ended up dying while in custody. Here is the link to the article: https://newrepublic.com/article/121186/truancy-laws-unfairly-attack-poor-children-and-parents In today’s we have more of a stricter system. In other words we have child protective services that make sure that children are safe. Even when a child is removed from a family for neglect or abuse child protective services will place the child in a foster home in which has been fully investigated
