Children bringing knives into school
POLICE were called to a school in Wales following reports a four-year-old had a knife. Dyfed-Powys Police were called in by teachers at the unnamed school.
It was just one in a growing catalogue of knife incidents in schools.
More than 1,000 children were caught carrying knives in schools last year – with the youngest aged just four, latest figures show.
Weapons seized by police included machetes, hunting knives, a samurai sword and even a highlighter pen which had its nib replaced with a blade.
Figures obtained by 5 News under Freedom of Information laws show a total of 1,144 knife possession offences in schools, where the suspect was a child, were recorded in England, Scotland and Wales last year.
The number of offences more than doubled over the past five years, among the 36 forces in England and Wales that provided comparable data, soaring from 372 in 2014 to 968 last year.
It’s not been confirmed if the Dyfed-Powys incident is connected to an incident at Ysgol Pen Rhos in
Llanelli in July, when a pupil at the school was said to have pulled a penknife out inside the building.
No pupils were injured during the incident, but parents reacted angrily on social media at the time. Some expressed shock that they were not initially notified by the school.
Carmarthenshire Council issued a statement after the incident to explain that the situation was dealt with by the school.
Gareth Morgans, director of education services at the council, said: “We are aware of an incident that took place last week. This was dealt with by the school in line with policy.”
The 5 News research also incudes other incidents throughout the UK.
In Manchester, an 11-year-old, who had replaced a highlighter nib with a blade, told another pupil: “Listen to me or else I’ll stab you.”
Former teacher David Simmons, who set up the Changing Lives charity, said he was confronted by a sixyear-old brandishing a knife while working in a north London school.
“He was threatening other staff members and saying that he was going to stab them, so I’ve gone over trying to calm this child down,” he said. “He’s then said he’s going to stab me and kill me. At that age you just wouldn’t have thought that a sixyear-old should be doing that. Why were they doing that?”
Archbishop Ilsley Catholic School, in Birmingham, carries out random checks on students, where they are searched before walking through a knife arch.
The school said it does not have a knife problem, and headteacher Helen Burrows explained the checks were brought in to teach children about the wider world.
“It could happen at any school at any time,” she said. “I don’t think a child bringing a knife into a school is a localised issue. It’s a national issue.
“It’s quite simple for me as a headteacher that a child bringing a knife into school is not acceptable, but we would never wash our hands of a child completely.”
She added: “We would always look at what we could do to support that child moving on in the future.”
Steven George, from the National Association of Headteachers, said referring a child to the police isn’t always the best option, adding: “What you’re trying to do is find a solution for that child.
“Their family, circumstances, the neighbourhood they live in, the people they hang around with are all going to be factors and those aren’t solved with a phone call to the police.
“We know that schools are being asked to do more than ever before on a wide range of issues that extend beyond the school gates. If the figures continue to grow, then that is a problem that schools definitely cannot tackle alone.”
A Welsh Government spokesman said: “There is a duty on local authorities and schools to ensure that schools are a safe environment for all.
“If at any point the environment within a school becomes unsafe, the school should ensure that the relevant authorities are informed so that appropriate support can be made available.”