Twice in less than a week we were reminded that we still have a long way to go when it comes to protecting children.

City police responded to one home for a report of disorderly conduct and found a residence in deplorable conditions with a 4-year-old and a 1-year-old child sleeping on a mattress covered with garbage and insects. There was no food in the home and drug paraphernalia all over the apartment. The children were turned over to Child Protective Services.

In an unrelated incident, police responded to a home for a report of a child bleeding from the mouth after grabbing a used shaving razor from an uncovered garbage can and putting it in her mouth. Officers found two young children in the home with little food and an abundance of cockroaches inside the entire home. There was a single mattress on the floor of the children’s sleeping area with no sheets or bedding and stains from feces and urine, human feces on the floor and wall of the bedroom. CPS was made aware of the incident and a relative took the children for the evening.

It’s unrealistic to expect Child Protective Services to know of every situation in which a child is being abused or living in conditions like those Jamestown police found recently before they happen. But these recent cases in Jamestown should be a reminder that we can always improve our awareness of the conditions some children live with every day. We can’t allow ourselves to be desensitized to the plight some children deal with through no fault of their own.

We’ve said it before and it bears repeating. The conditions for workers in the county’s Child Protective Service department pale in comparison to the conditions too many children in our community live in every day. They should remain our north star as we monitor CPS.