Former student confronts guard

MARIANNA, Fla., June 16 (UPI) -- After 50 years, a former student at what was then the Florida School for Boys in Marianna, Fla., is confronting the man he says beat him.

Bryant Middleton, 64, claims Troy Tidwell, 85, then an administrator at the reform school, beat him and many other boys at the school. Middleton told Florida authorities in a deposition he was 14 when Tidwell beat him with a leather strap.

Middleton is suing Tidwell. Other former students are also plaintiffs in the civil suit, which is still at the deposition stage, and told their stories to CNN.

Florida Gov. Charlie Crist ordered the state Department of Law Enforcement to investigate the allegations. The department hasn't found evidence that bodies buried in a cemetery on the grounds were beating victims. The students buried there died in a fire and a flu outbreak.

A department spokesman said "none of the former students ... were able to provide any specific firsthand information which would have identified any of these alleged victims or the person's responsible."

The department has yet to file a final report.