The Paradox of Silence: Hissom’s Teachers, Including Current Candidate for Oklahoma Superintendent Dr. Robert Franklin, Escaped Accountability

When federal investigators exposed the depravity of the Hissom Memorial Center in Sand Springs, Oklahoma, the public faced an unsettling truth.

In 1987, Hissom Memoral Center was legally condemned by U.S. District Judge James O. Ellison as a “human-development emergency.” the institution was found to have subjected vulnerable children with disabilities to relentless physical abuse, gross medical neglect and widespread chemical sedation of vulnerable children with disabilities.

Yet, an intriguing professional paradox arose from the landmark litigation. Despite the facility’s closure due to inhumane conditions, the teachers who worked there neither faced any judicial consequences nor experienced career repercussions. Instead, Hissom’s teachers cleanly transitioned into local public-school systems. Among them was Dr. Robert Franklin, who taught special education at Hissom for five years, from 1981 to 1986, before embarking on a respected, decades-long career in public school leadership. The key question is how the judicial system and the Oklahoma State Department of Education permitted these educators to keep their licenses and certifications and advance in their educational careers.