{"id":158966,"date":"2026-04-07T00:07:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T00:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/158966\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T00:07:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T00:07:08","slug":"erie-officials-speak-on-rise-in-tragedies-involving-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/158966\/","title":{"rendered":"Erie officials speak on rise in tragedies involving children"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">A concerning rise in tragedies involving children has caught the attention of local police.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cSpecifically, this year, we have had more child deaths really in the first quarter than we\u2019ve had in full years over the past,\u201d said Erie Police Chief Rick Lorah.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a class=\"link \" href=\"https:\/\/www.yourerie.com\/news\/local-news\/erie-fire-claims-lives-of-two-young-children\/?ipid=promo-link-block1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Erie fire claims lives of two young children, meticulous search underway;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Erie fire claims lives of two young children, meticulous search underway&quot;}\"> Erie fire claims lives of two young children, meticulous search underway <\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Chief Lorah said there\u2019s already been a multitude of issues his department has responded to this year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cWe\u2019ve had fires, we\u2019ve had, you know, obviously, children that are overdosing on drugs,\u201d said Chief Lorah. \u201cWe\u2019ve had, you know, very, very small children, infants, you know, getting out of the house because you know their parents are in the throes of drug abuse.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Child advocates said these situations often point to deeper challenges. Executive Director of the Erie County Office of Children and Youth, Mike Whitney, said recognizing contributing factors is the first step to prevention.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cContributing factors, certainly, when we\u2019re involved with OCY, are substance abuse,\u201d said Whitney. \u201cWe also see societal bigger issues like just people being more individualistic nowadays. We\u2019re connected via the internet but not in person, and it really does take a village to raise children.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a class=\"link \" href=\"https:\/\/www.yourerie.com\/news\/local-news\/pro-waste-driver-helps-little-girl-after-apparent-fall-from-window-parent-charged\/?ipid=promo-link-block2\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Pro Waste driver helps little girl after apparent fall from window, parent charged;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Pro Waste driver helps little girl after apparent fall from window, parent charged&quot;}\"> Pro Waste driver helps little girl after apparent fall from window, parent charged <\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Advocates said working towards solving these issues and keeping the children in our community safe are always a top priority.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cAny tragedy in Erie County is one tragedy too many, and we want to try to, as the Office of Children and Youth, protect every kid, right? Safety, Child permanency, and well-being are our main concerns,\u201d said Whitney.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cThese accidents, these tragedies happen in the blink of an eye so, you know, it\u2019s just something that we\u2019re always going to take a look at and something that we take very seriously,\u201d said Chief Lorah.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Advocates said there is a variety of different resources for those who are struggling and to call if anyone notices signs of child neglect.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.yourerie.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WJET\/WFXP\/YourErie.com.;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WJET\/WFXP\/YourErie.com.&quot;}\" class=\"link \"> For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WJET\/WFXP\/YourErie.com. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A concerning rise in tragedies involving children has caught the attention of local police. \u201cSpecifically, this year, we&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":158967,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[734,136,142,138,137,71977,71976,71978],"class_list":["post-158966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-erie","tag-children","tag-erie","tag-erie-county","tag-erie-headlines","tag-erie-news","tag-erie-police-chief-rick-lorah","tag-mike-whitney","tag-tragedies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158966"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158966\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/158967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}