Fury as school chiefs abandon zero tolerance policy on knives and say pupils will NOT be expelled

Pupils who bring knives to schools will not automatically be expelled under controversial plans to scrap a ‘zero tolerance’ approach to the deadly weapons in class.

MPs have criticised the proposals – which have been floated in some areas of the UK worst hit by knife crime – saying the only message should be that blades have no place in school.

The suggestion comes as head teachers try to reduce the number of pupils they exclude – which some experts say leads to more involvement in knife crime and other illegal activity.

Now Wandsworth Council in South-West London has circulated guidelines saying that permanently and immediately excluding any child who has carried or used a knife against others ‘is not appropriate’. 

The council claims the suggested change in policy will ‘ensure that our schools are safer places for staff, pupils, parents and visitors’.

Similar moves are believed to be under way across London where knife crime has risen to a new high, according to the latest figures, with 15,080 knife offences recorded in the capital in the year to the end of September.

The 17-page Wandsworth document, drawn up with the police, runs through a range of hypothetical scenarios from a girl who is self-harming, a vulnerable Year 7 boy who has brought his penknife to school to show his friends and another found with a large kitchen knife in his rucksack.

While the police are informed in all cases, the final outcomes should depend on other factors, says the document.

But Tory MP Tom Hunt, a member of the Commons Education Committee, said: ‘I wouldn’t want anything to be done to soften the message that knives have no place in schools.

‘Exclusion should probably be the norm for kids caught carrying knives at school. Perhaps if there’s an exceptional reason it might not be appropriate, but generally we need to be handing out a tough punishment for that.

‘There are no circumstances whatsoever where it’s acceptable to carry a knife at school or anywhere else for that matter.

‘I think being caught carrying a knife at school is completely and utterly unacceptable and there has to be a tough approach.’

Last year a report by MPs and peers warned that exclusion from school could actually be the ‘tipping point’ which leads children to pick up a knife.

Official figures show that children in England’s schools were permanently excluded on 7,900 occasions in 2017/18 – a 70 per cent increase in five years.

The all-party group on knife crime said schools needed to be more accountable for the children they excluded and should ensure they still get a decent education.

‘Too many children are being socially excluded and marked as failures, with tragic consequences,’ the report said. ‘All too often the moment of school exclusion is the tipping point that leads to young people picking up knives. It’s increasingly clear children outside of mainstream schools are at serious risk of grooming and exploitation by criminal gangs.’

But Tom Bennett, the Department for Education’s independent behaviour adviser, has argued against making the link that exclusion leads to knife crime and suggested campaigners were driven ‘more by ideology than evidence’.

Writing in The Times he blamed ‘forces such as poverty and gang culture, which are complex and hard to solve easily’ and added: ‘It is far easier to point the finger of blame at schools and thereby prevent them from doing what sadly sometimes needs to be done for the good of the school community.’

A Wandsworth Council spokesman said: ‘This is a discussion document that’s been drawn up in close consultation with the police, head teachers, child psychologists and educational professionals to give schools guidance on how they may choose to react to different scenarios they may encounter.

‘It is also being discussed in neighbouring boroughs and it’s our understanding that similar guidance is being circulated among all the London boroughs.’

Recent schoolboy victims of knife crime include Baptista Adjei, 15, who was stabbed to death in his uniform in Stratford, East London, in October. 

Another 15-year-old boy has been charged with his murder and possession of an offensive weapon. Baptista’s aunt, Aretha Adjei, said: ‘The fact that he died in his school uniform is horrific… His mother is not coping well. You can’t imagine her pain.’