NEWS: Knife crime crisis hits schools hard

As reported by The Independent. schools are grappling with an alarming increase in knife attacks, with four incidents involving children or teachers reported each week

It comes amid concerns knife crime has dropped down the political agenda in the general election as Labour and the Tories focus on each other’s tax plans and Nigel Farage’s Reform UK tries to push immigration to the forefront.

Campaigners and families of victims have accused the main political parties of silence on the issue, with knife crime and how to tackle it noticeably absent from the leaders’ debates and interviews.

The Independent found that police received 174 reports of attacks involving blades or sharp instruments during term time last year, according to Freedom of Information figures provided by 27 of the 43 police forces in England and Wales. Between January and December 2023, there were also 738 incidents of weapon possession in schools, which can include broken glass as well as knives.

At the 2010 general election, the then Tory leader David Cameron made tackling knife crime one of his top priorities. But now, with an epidemic on Britain’s streets, home secretary James Cleverly has not been as outspoken on the issue.

Mr Cleverly was vocal during the London mayoral election when he tried to blame Sadiq Khan for an overall increase in knife crime based on statistics about the problem in the capital.

But after Mr Khan was re-elected on 2 May, the debate has slipped down the agenda. A spokesperson for the home secretary insisted that he is still “very concerned” about knife crime.

They added: “There is a problem, and in government we have done a lot on it, but there is no doubt that the problem is disproportionately in London where Sadiq Khan has failed to get a grip on it.”

The issue has appeared in the manifestos with the Tories promising tougher sentences, Labour offering to set up community youth hubs, and Mr Farage calling for the reintroduction of stop and search by the police.

Anne Longfield, now chair of the independent Commission on Young Lives, told The Independent: “Knives are a terrifying aspect of life for a growing number of teenagers and we see the dreadful and tragic impact of that virtually every week in the headlines as young people experience violence or in some cases lose their lives.

“What’s very clear from these figures is that this comes through the gates of the school as well. So schools now have knives and knife attacks, sadly, as part and parcel of life in schools.”

She accused the government of not taking the issue seriously enough through a decline in mental health, family and youth support, adding: “As a result, schools often feel very unprepared and left to deal with things by themselves without the help they need.”

Under guidance issued by the Department for Education, schools have the power to search, screen and confiscate where there are reasonable grounds to suspect pupils may have a knife.