Every morning across America, parents do something without giving it much thought: they place their children in the care of people they barely know.
They watch them climb onto school buses. They drop them at school doors. They send them onto athletic fields and into locker rooms. And they trust that the adults waiting for them will teach them, guide them and, above all, protect them.
Most do.
But what happens when they don't? And what happens when the institution entrusted with protecting a child begins protecting itself instead?
But what happens when they don't? And what happens when the institution entrusted with protecting a child begins protecting itself instead?
Those questions are at the heart of Broken Trust.
I spent seventeen years as a classroom teacher and later worked in school administration before serving six years in the Oklahoma House of Representatives. During my time in the Legislature and continuing today I have also served as an adjunct college professor preparing future educators. These roles have allowed me to see public education from multiple perspectives: the classroom, the administrative office, the college campus, and the state Capitol.
I believed then, as I do now, that the overwhelming majority of people who enter education care deeply about children.
But during my years in public service, I began encountering cases that forced me to confront a much more difficult truth: good people working inside a system do not guarantee that the system itself will protect children when something goes terribly wrong.
In 2023, I began hearing stories involving sexual misconduct by school employees.
At first, each appeared to be an isolated horror.
Then there was another.
And another.
And another.
Different schools. Different towns. Different circumstances.
But the patterns were disturbingly familiar.
Warning signs missed. Complaints minimized. Boundaries crossed. Adults who knew pieces of what was happening but failed to connect them. Institutions are sometimes more prepared to manage a problem than expose it.
So, I started digging.
So, I started digging.
And Broken Trust began.
The deeper I went, the clearer it became that the problem was bigger than the cases I was documenting.
Sexual misconduct in schools was where the investigation began. It was not where the questions ended.
Again and again, I found myself returning back to the same fundamental issue: What happens when an institution fails to do the very thing it was entrusted to do?
Again and again, I found myself returning back to the same fundamental issue: What happens when an institution fails to do the very thing it was entrusted to do?
Parents entrust schools with their children not only to keep them safe, but to educate them well. Taxpayers entrust government with billions of dollars with the expectation that those resources will produce meaningful results. Families grant public agencies broad authority over long-lasting life decisions that hold great consequences. Citizens entrust elected officials with the power to write laws, spend public money, and hold institutions accountable.
Each of those relationships rest on trust.
And trust carries responsibility.
That realization broadened the mission of Broken Trust.
That realization broadened the mission of Broken Trust.
Today, Broken Trust follows the evidence wherever that responsibility leads. We examine child protection, parental rights, education outcomes, government accountability, public spending, and the policies that affect children and families.
We ask questions that are sometimes uncomfortable but should never be considered unreasonable.
Who made the decision?
Who had the authority to act?
Who had the authority to act?
Were parents told the truth?
Was the law followed?
Where did the money go?
What results did it produce?
What results did it produce?
And when something went wrong, who was held accountable?
This is what I have come to call The Sacred Trust, the obligation that comes with being entrusted with something that belongs to someone else.
A child.
A parent’s or the family's rights.
A parent’s or the family's rights.
A taxpayer's dollar.
The public's authority.
Broken Trust is not built on the premise that every school is failing, every public servant is untrustworthy, or every institution is corrupt. Far from it. I have spent much of my life working alongside teachers, administrators, public servants, parents, and elected officials who take their responsibilities very seriously.
But good intentions cannot substitute for accountability.
But good intentions cannot substitute for accountability.
And accountability should not be viewed as an attack on an institution. It is one of the ways we preserve institutions worthy of our trust.
That is why Broken Trust will do more than tell stories about what went wrong. We will follow the evidence. We will examine the laws and policies behind the headlines. We will help parents understand where authority actually rests and who is responsible for a decision. We will look at what Oklahoma spends on education and what our children are receiving in return. We will examine policies affecting families and ask whether government is respecting the proper role of parents. And we will continue documenting the cases of children who were harmed by adults and systems entrusted with their protection.
The purpose is not simply to expose failure.
It is to understand it well enough to change it.
It is to understand it well enough to change it.
The Broken Trust logo itself tells that story. The circle represents the circle of trust we build around our children—the parents, teachers, schools, communities, agencies, and institutions charged with their care. The break in that circle represents what happens when someone entrusted with a child fails in that responsibility.
Our work is about finding those breaks.
Sometimes that means exposing wrongdoing. Sometimes it means identifying a law that needs to change. Sometimes it means giving a parent the information needed to advocate for a child. And sometimes it simply means putting facts in front of the public that have been hidden by bureaucracy, complexity, or silence.
Because trust should never be indiscreetly given, it should come with expectations and an obligation. Institutions do not deserve our trust simply because they have always had it. Trust is earned through responsibility, transparency, and accountability.
This is the standard I believe we should expect from our schools, our government, our institutions and ourselves.
Broken Trust exists to ask the questions, follow the evidence, and shine a light on the places where that responsibility has been abandoned.
Because in the end, the standard is remarkably simple:
Take care of that with which you've been entrusted.
Take care of that with which you've been entrusted.
Sherrie Conley is a former Oklahoma state representative, educator, school administrator, and adjunct college professor. She is the founder of Broken Trust, an organization dedicated to protecting children, strengthening families, examining education outcomes, and holding the institutions entrusted with our children and public resources accountable.