Education Union against knife checks in Staffordshire and Cheshire schools
There's been 157 knife-crime related incidents in local schools in the past 3 years
A teaching union has said they'd be firmly against the idea of bringing in security checks or 'knife arches' in Staffordshire and Cheshire schools.
It comes after our exclusive investigation into knife-crime related incidents in schools in the North West, which found there to be children as young as 6 carrying knives.
The investigation also discovered that there's been more than 150 knife-crime related incidents in schools in Cheshire and Staffordshire in the past three years.
Some officials in the region suggested that schools should consider implementing a better means of clamping down on the alarming statistics.
However, Pete Middleman, from The National Education Union in Cheshire, sternly rejected the thought of bringing in physical security measures:
"We don’t accept that schools should be turned into correctional facilities", he said.
"The vast majority of our classrooms are very very safe, but it’s also true that for some students knives and other weapons are part of their daily lives.
"We reject any suggestion that knife arches or scanners should be part of a daily school routine."
Mr. Middleman also says more community support is needed to help stop knife-crime related incidents in schools:
"Teachers are an important part of a complicated jigsaw, not just including the police but also recognising the absolute carnage that’s being caused to youth services, to outreach services that at one stage would’ve been able to divert young people from erroneous paths."