Police Knife Crime
Mrs Bennett our careers leader here at Smithills High School arranged for our local PCO officers Paul Dootson and Bhavinee Ihala to come into school on Thursday 16th May 2024. With the rise of knife crime in Bolton and surrounding areas we as a school are raising awareness to all our pupils. We had a group of pupils from Year 10 and Year 9 that attended the sessions.
The awareness was around carrying a blade or knife and the reasons around young people getting involved with this and social pressure from peers. Teenagers remain over twice as likely to be fatally stabbed than they were 10 years ago. Last year over 42 young lives were lost unnecessarily due to stabbings.
Carrying a knife or any weapon is never a good idea. Some people carry a knife because they think “everyone else is “but that’s not the case -99 per cent of young people in the UK don’t carry knives. Some young people think if they carry a knife then it will provide protection but unfortunately, it can be used upon themselves or they can obtain an injury from mishandling it and being hurt.
The police are trying to prevent young people from being drawn into knife crime, targeting those most at risk of getting involved in knife crime and building awareness to stop them from ever picking up a knife.
The typical age range of those involved is between 13 and 24 years old, it is illegal to carry most knives or any weapon in public without a good reason.
It was also discussed about recording any incidents on mobile phones such as stabbings or brawls that also carry the reason to be arrested for being involved. The critical issues surrounding knife crime, exploring its root causes and potential solutions.
The officers also discussed the impact of holding a criminal record and the impact of college applications and job applications even mortgage applications later in life and travelling to countries such as America not being allowed into other countries such as Australia holding a criminal record.
As a school, we would like to roll this out in other classroom sessions with the Police and in Assemblies over the next 6 months.
The session was very rewarding for those pupils that attended and it was good to hear them ask questions about knife crime and gangs and how they would report it.