Between 2007 and mid-May of this year, Maine saw the homicides of 30 children. That’s a shocking and tragic number, but it doesn’t tell the whole story. Not included in that number are cases like that of Logan Marr, the 5-year-old girl who died of asphyxiation in 2001 after her foster mother duct taped her to a high chair in her basement. Not included in that number are the three Maine kids who died in late May and June of this year, whose parents have been charged with manslaughter or depraved indifference murder in their deaths. Not included is 1-month-old Sylus Melvin of Milo, who allegedly died at the hands of his father this August.

And not included are the untold number of Maine children who are experiencing abuse and neglect at this very moment, whose stories may never be known until it is too late, or never at all.

Over the course of Tuesday, Sept. 28, and Wednesday, Sept. 29, I travelled the state as part of a walking tour I organized called Walk a Mile in Their Shoes. The tour took me through many of the cities and towns where kids died from abuse or neglect in recent years.

I started my walk in Old Town, where 3-year-old Hailey Goding died in June of a fentanyl overdose. I then stopped in Bangor on my way to Brewer, to honor 6-week-old Jaden Harding, who died May 31, 2021, after allegedly being shaken by his father. My next stop was Stockton Springs, where 10-year-old Marissa Kennedy was beaten to death in 2018 and where 3-year-old Maddox Williams died this June. I began day two in Augusta before walking to Chelsea, where Logan Marr lived before she died. I ended my walk in Wiscasset, where 4-year-old Kendall Chick was also beaten to death in 2017.

I decided to organize this walk for several reasons. The first is to remember these kids; to remember their bright and vibrant lives before they were killed, and to honor their lost potential and the hole their absence leave in our hearts and in our communities. The second is to raise awareness of the fact that there are kids across our state — kids in our neighborhoods, even — who are experiencing abuse right now, and who need us to step up and speak up if we have concerns. And the final reason is to shine a bright light on Maine’s child welfare system and its many failures to protect Maine’s kids.

Many of the families and kids I mentioned had prior, sometimes significant involvement with Maine’s Department of Health and Human Services before they died. Logan Marr and Kendall Chick, for example, were placed by DHHS in the homes where they were killed. In cases like Marissa Kennedy’s, reports and signs of abuse were overlooked, and children were allowed to remain with their parents when they should have been removed.

I’ve been paying attention to issues of child abuse long enough to have noticed a familiar pattern: Kids die, DHHS vows to make reforms, a few things change, and then we forget until the next tragic murder rocks our state.

This time must be different, and that’s what Walk a Mile in Their Shoes hopes to accomplish. I was honored to have been joined on my walk by legislators, prosecutors, law enforcement officers, community members, members of the media and even the family members of Maine’s lost kids. We came together to make sure that this time, we can accomplish real change, because increased transparency and accountability is the only way we make things better in our state.

I want to be clear that the problem we have in Maine is systemic. The vast majority of the time, child welfare caseworkers are well intentioned people who want to help kids. But when they don’t have the resources, training and supervision they need, they make bad decisions and miss critical signs, and kids suffer and die as a result.

Right now, there are several reviews and investigations into Maine DHHS and where things went wrong for the kids who died this summer. As those investigations continue to unfold, it’s my hope that increased attention from the public and lawmakers will lead DHHS to finally accept that major reforms are needed in order to make things better. Change only happens when we all commit to working together to protect the most vulnerable among us. Until then, I’ll continue doing all I can to make sure these kid aren’t forgotten.

Bill Diamond of Windham is a state senator and former secretary of state.