Stun guns, axes and cut-throat razors: 1,000 children found with weapons at school since 2011

981 children were caught with weapons including guns, axes, and a meat clever on school premises since 2011.

17:26 23 April 2014

Sky News has conducted an investigation which revealed that since 2011, there were nearly 1,000 children in different schools around the country who were found carrying a weapon. These included guns, axes, and a meat clever. 

 

One 18-year-old who admitted to carrying weapon in school said that it was a necessity. 

 

"I carried a weapon ... but only because of the environment I was in.

 

"My generation is a bit wild ... so it's a normal thing to carry a weapon because you know everyone else is. It's making it fair, basically."

 

According to the study, of the 981 children who brought weapon to school, 80 of them are primary school children, the youngest of whom was an eight year-old with a knife. Another 36 pupils brought assortment of guns while 329 were caught with items including a cut-throat razor, axe, and a stun gun. 

 

Jayne Walmsley, whose son Luke was murdered at a Lincolnshire school in 2003 aged 14, said: "Something is happening to the society we live in.

 

"We need to think and educate these kids. It's got to stop. We've got to do something about it."

 

Meanwhile, the government has responded by saying that teachers have been given the authority to take action if they suspect a pupil has brought a weapon into school. 

 

A spokesman for the Department for Education said: "Teachers can now search pupils without consent, confiscate prohibited items and use force to remove disruptive pupils from the classroom when necessary.”

 

"We've also given heads the final say on expulsions by removing the right of appeal panels to put pupils back in the classroom."