Bubbaworld

The Oklahoma Department of Human Services is a secretive agency. It hides behind state privacy laws, conducts its work in secret and apparently answers to no one.

Seldom do we mere commoners get a glimpse into the workings or lack thereof of the Oklahoma DHS. And usually when we do it is the result of either the blatant abuse or most often the death of a child under DHS supervision.

The Oklahoman is currently running a series of reports on the Oklahoma Department of Human Services and discovering that prying aside the veil of secrecy surrounding the DHS is a difficult task even for a major news organization. Especially when confronting a government agency with lots to hide.

Today, The Oklahoman carried a report by Nolan Clay and Randy Ellis titled, What DHS knew … but didn’t act on until a foster child reported sexual abuse

That report should be mandatory reading for anyone that cares about Oklahoma’s children and how the Oklahoma Department of Human Services failed miserably to protect young boys called “candy” from admitted pervert and child molester Paul Stephen Hull and his child-killer lover Erwin Charles Swender.

Last week, Hull, 55, pleaded guilty to attempted rape, forcible sodomy, second-degree rape, lewd molestation and drug crimes over his 2006 sexual abuse of the 15-year-old boy who was living in the home Hull shared with child-killer Erwin Swender and three other boys. Swender is in the Cleveland County Jail awaiting trial on similar charges involving the same victim.

Hull, who until he was charged, was an English teacher at Capitol Hill High School in Oklahoma City was evidently considered the “cream of the crop” of DHS foster parents and was so highly regarded that he was allowed to keep more children at a time than most foster parents.

If Paul Stephen Hull is indicative if the “cream of the crop” of DHS foster parents, may God have mercy on the poor foster children of Oklahoma as it is obvious that the Oklahoma Department of Human Services does not.