The Chil­dren’s Au­thor­i­ty of Trinidad and To­ba­go is urg­ing par­ents and guardians to main­tain the safe­ty prac­tices that pro­tect­ed chil­dren dur­ing the school term as the Christ­mas and New Year hol­i­days ap­proach.

Mr. Shel­don Cyrus, Di­rec­tor and Chief Ex­ec­u­tive Of­fi­cer of the Au­thor­i­ty, re­mind­ed par­ents to “keep chil­dren a pri­or­i­ty, de­spite the lengthy to-do lists and all the as­so­ci­at­ed ac­tiv­i­ties of the fes­tive sea­son.” He said ne­glect re­mains the most re­port­ed form of abuse, with parental inat­ten­tion leav­ing chil­dren vul­ner­a­ble.

“It is easy for par­ents to get caught up in the prepa­ra­tions for Christ­mas but they must not be dis­tract­ed from their pri­ma­ry du­ty as care­givers,” Mr. Cyrus added. He al­so warned that chil­dren should nev­er be giv­en al­co­hol, which can im­pair judge­ment and make them eas­i­er tar­gets for abuse.