On Oct. 31, the Editorial Board published an opinion echoing the Casey Family Program’s findings into the shortcomings of the Office of Child and Family Services (OCFS), and arguing that keeping Maine kids safe requires an investment in Maine families. While I agree that families need support and that more resources and better communication are needed in OCFS, I fear that we’re slipping back into a familiar discussion – one that sugarcoats the reasons why kids are dying and that repeats the same excuses offered by bureaucrats these past 20 years.

The truth is that some of the child deaths over the past few years – deaths determined in the courts to be murders – were the direct result of not only bad decisions and abusive adults, but of outright incompetence by people in authority.

I attended three of these recent trials: that of Shawna Gatto, convicted of murdering Kendall Chick; of Julio Carrillo, Marissa Kennedy’s stepfather, who pled guilty to Marissa’s murder; and of Sharon Carrillo, Marissa’s mother, also convicted of murdering Marissa. At these trials and sentencings, I saw and heard the hundreds of details, photos and facts about how OCFS continually failed to protect these children. Most revelations from the trials highlighted the lackadaisical approach to responsibilities and the blatant disregard of evidence that these children were in serious danger.

In the trials over Marissa Kennedy’s death, we learned that neighbors voiced concerns about abuse, that officials at Marissa’s school notified DHHS several times about their concerns, and that police were called to the home more than once. Just before Marissa died, a caseworker visited the Carrillo home, and during that visit Marissa passed out from these repeated beatings. Yet, nothing was done.

Kendall Chick wasn’t visited by a caseworker in the home where OCFS placed her even one time in the last several months of her life. We learned at the trial that just one visit would likely have revealed she was being severely beaten on a regular basis.

Some of the four children who were allegedly murdered this summer are reported to have had prior contact with DHHS. At least one child, 3-year-old Maddox Williams, was placed back in his mother’s care despite her questionable ability to keep him safe; even neighbors and family members knew it wasn’t safe. On June 20, Maddox was pronounced dead at Waldo County General Hospital. His mother has been charged with depraved indifference murder.

For the past two years, the Maine Child Welfare Ombudsman has reported that OCFS has struggled to make good decisions that place children in safe households, and to recognize when the household they are already in is unsafe. In time, we will learn the details regarding whether they were making good decisions in this summer’s other child deaths.

Over the past 20 years, every time a child dies – oftentimes by homicide – while in state care, we hear from the department that they will fix the problems. That’s exactly what they said after Marissa and Kendall were tortured and murdered, and now there have been four more deaths this summer. Once again, the department calls these deaths “a call to action.”

Yes, OCFS needs more resources and better communication with partner agencies. Yes, parents and families are going through a lot, especially at a time like this, and need more support. But none of these factors should be used as excuses for the department’s ongoing poor decision-making when the evidence shows they continue to fail to place kids in safe homes.

I’ve long argued that the issues with child protective services are systemic – and they are – but that doesn’t take away from the need for accountability. And while it’s true that families struggling with issues like poverty, chronic illness and stress are at a greater risk for neglect and abuse, that doesn’t make OCFS’s failures any less tragic for kids like Marissa, Kendall and Maddox. It’s imperative that we keep this discussion focused on the issue at hand, so that we stop enabling the department to deflect the attention from the real problem: their inability to meet their most basic responsibility of keeping kids safe.