The Chil­dren’s Au­thor­i­ty of Trinidad and To­ba­go is urg­ing par­ents and guardians to re­main vig­i­lant in their care and pro­tec­tion of chil­dren, es­pe­cial­ly dur­ing the up­com­ing Ju­ly-Au­gust school va­ca­tion.

The call comes as re­cent da­ta un­der­scores the con­tin­ued vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty of chil­dren across the coun­try.

Shel­don Cyrus, Di­rec­tor and Chief Ex­ec­u­tive Of­fi­cer of the Au­thor­i­ty, said, “Based on re­ports the Au­thor­i­ty re­ceives, our na­tion’s chil­dren con­tin­ue to be ne­glect­ed. The da­ta shows that ne­glect is the high­est re­port­ed type of abuse, fol­lowed by sex­u­al, phys­i­cal and emo­tion­al abuse.”