The Florida Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday approved a measure to require the state to issue a formal apology to former students of the Dozier School for Boys who were victimized by the reform school's staff.

The vote followed an emotional round of testimony by "The White House Boys," a group of men who attended Dozier in the 1950s and '60s and were sent to a building -- the "White House" -- where brutal beatings were said to have been meted out.

"I would rather be sent back into the jungles of Vietnam than to spend one single day at the Florida School for Boys," Bryant Middleton told the committee.

For decades, stories of horrific physical and sexual abuse at the Panhandle reform school were met with disbelief. The state's power structure, former Dozier students say, had a vested interest in covering up the wrongdoing. When evidence of atrocities was literally unearthed with the recent exhumations of dozens of bodies on the school's grounds, however, silence turned to action.

"I cannot say with enough heartfelt remorse that it's taken this long for a legislature, with all the evidence that is before us, to come forth and apologize for what has to be one of the blackest moments in our state's history," House Speaker Richard Corcoran (R-Land O'Lakes) said after Tuesday's vote.

Corcoran noted he's had discussions with Attorney General Pam Bondi about pursuing prosecution of the only known surviving Dozier guard presumed to have had a hand in the beatings. A decision has yet to be made.

And while some White House Boys quietly mentioned their desire for reparations, most said an apology would be the most meaningful action the state could take to help bring closure to a troubling chapter of their lives.

"Though I am an officer, though I am an Army ranger, though I served our nation for more than 20 years, the pain of Dozier kept me awake last night 'til 3:30 this morning, thinking about even coming here and having to talk," Middleton said.