School knife arches further criminalise young people
The London borough of Waltham Forest has been criticised for introducing knife arches into the its 22 secondary schools. It is the first borough in the capital to introduce the scheme.
The London borough of Waltham Forest has been criticised for introducing knife arches into the its 22 secondary schools. It is the first borough in the capital to introduce the scheme.
The arches will be used to regularly screen all pupils to ensure that they are not carrying any dangerous weapons. The council said that it made the decision after many young people came forward stating they did not feel safe in their schools.
The move has been criticised as one that will further criminalise young people, but Chris Robbins of Waltham Forest council defended the scheme, saying that it would help fight knife crime in the capital.
Theres no doubt that there is an issue of knife and weapon crime in London and it would be foolish to ignore that, he said.
He added that the initiative could tackle serious crime as part of a larger educational programme with the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), which involves officers talking to students about the danger of weapons.
The scheme was launched at Lammas School and Sports College in Leyton, east London.
So far, 15 schools and 12,000 pupils in the borough have undertaken weapons screening as part of the first phase. No weapons were found.
All the boroughs schools have signed up to the Weapons in Schools Protocol.