Truly shocking - Boy, 15, dies after stabbing this lunchtime at a school in Sheffield.

Someone needs to get to grips with knife crime in the UK.

If anyone from the Government, Education Department or Police come on the TV/radio with the normal meaningless sound bite lessons will be learnt I will flipping scream…

This is so awful and tragic. Much more needs to be done.

RIP

Also in the news from Wales a 14 year old girl is found guilty of attempted murder, two members of school staff last year.
Do all schools now need scanners at entrance points with security staff?

The truy shocking bit is that it is no longer truly shocking, it seems to be a daily event.

Tragic news but I’m no longer shocked as another child dies by a knife wielded by a child. The country doesn’t seem able to get a grip on teenage knife crime. I despair 😩

Like ripples in a lake, so many people will be sobbing tonight. Beyond awful isn’t it?

These children never learn, do they?
Two families heart broken and changed irrevocably . A community shaken at such a loss.
It seems there was trouble earlier in the week and I'm sure the school acted promptly and rightly.
This carrying knives has been going on for a long, long time. I have been retired over 20 years and can remember problems well before ~~I retired.

You seem to have some sympathy for the killer FGT. I couldn’t give a damn whether he’s ‘terrified, sobbing his eyes out’. And whether I have sympathy for his parents depends on how he acquired the knife and how much they knew.

I’m no longer shocked either, tanith. Scarcely a day passes without such a killing. I have no idea what the answer is but I question the culture and family lives of those involved and their educational record. I’m thankful that my child grew up, went to school and socialised in a white middle class market town. Gangs were unknown, and drugs weren’t in circulation. Nowadays it’s every parent’s nightmare unless, perhaps, they are very well off and their children attend an expensive boarding school where they might be exposed to drugs and alcohol, but not gang warfare and stabbings.

Really tragic yet again, but I can’t help wondering if this problem stems from lockdown. The children involved in these incidents are mostly of the same age so is it possible that some were left unsupervised at that time and they are now lacking discipline. Just a thought!

an expensive boarding school where they might be exposed to drugs and alcohol, but not gang warfare and stabbings
Unfortunately a pupil caused two other pupils life changing injuries with a hammer at Blundells School here in Devon.
It's every week now, everywhere.
It saddens me.

On the same news programme was another item about a 14 year old girl stabbing a teacher who thankfully wasn’t killed.
What is this all about??
The government needs to protect our children asap, not only from stabbings but from becoming involved with knives.
I could weep for the families. 😞🌺

My GD is 12 and has started going into town (London commuter belt in Herts) after school and at weekends with her friends. My fear is that all she has to do is be in the wrong place at the wrong time and she may become a victim of this senseless knife-crime.

Barleyfields, Middle class and white has nothing to do with it. You say that drugs were unheard of. That doesn't mean to say that they weren't there and being used by the middle class . You just didn't hear.

Lack of sanctions, lack of punishment; endless excuses and blaming everyone other than the perpetrator.
Complete lack of respect for authority.
Children unsupervised during covid, when most adults were off work or working from home?

Barleyfields

You seem to have some sympathy for the killer FGT. I couldn’t give a damn whether he’s ‘terrified, sobbing his eyes out’. And whether I have sympathy for his parents depends on how he acquired the knife and how much they knew.

I’m no longer shocked either, tanith. Scarcely a day passes without such a killing. I have no idea what the answer is but I question the culture and family lives of those involved and their educational record. I’m thankful that my child grew up, went to school and socialised in a white middle class market town. Gangs were unknown, and drugs weren’t in circulation. Nowadays it’s every parent’s nightmare unless, perhaps, they are very well off and their children attend an expensive boarding school where they might be exposed to drugs and alcohol, but not gang warfare and stabbings.

I'm not sure how old your children are but drugs were definitely in circulation even in small market towns and middle class areas.

Knife crime is endemic and something has to be done to end this scourge. Drugs, too, may often play a part.

This death of a 15 year old boy is the latest horrendous chapter and actions, not words, are what is needed as a matter of urgency.
Apparently this school went into lockdown last week after there were threats of violence.

We need to understand why it's happening to take effective action, & I'm not sure we do, so words have their place.
Widespread knife-carrying, violent films & video games, lack of a healthy respect for authority? There's a sort of self-perpetuating cycle because this is happening all the time now & adults may tell children that carrying knives makes them more at risk, not less, but all these stabbings sort of gives them the opposite message.
I don't think that children are intrincially any different from years ago, nor families - there have always been negligent parents.

Barleyfields child was of course safer in a middle class town than in an inner city school in a deprived area. Pretending otherwise is letting those children down.

What about the prevalence of cocaine as an after dinner necessity in middle upper class homes. this was reported on many times.
I know of schools attended mostly by middle class children,private, where the drug pushers were waiting outside for kids going home. I suppose they thought there was money there

westendgirl

What about the prevalence of cocaine as an after dinner necessity in middle upper class homes. this was reported on many times.
I know of schools attended mostly by middle class children,private, where the drug pushers were waiting outside for kids going home. I suppose they thought there was money there

That’s what my kids used to tell me about the private school up the road from their comprehensive.

How do these children have knives in the first place? Its heartbreaking. Are there no talks in schools or by parents telling the horror of such crimes , the repercussions.. The ones that do the crime their life is finished too. I don't know how any parent carries on.

I wonder how the teachers are coping with this, my husband taught for over 40 years but was glad to retire, I only taught for just over 10 years and that was enough for me.
Teachers have no authority anymore, they can't discipline kids or even talk to them about their behaviour. And kids need boundaries, they need discipline, especially if they come from a dysfunctional background. My DH coached football for years at the school as an extra curricula activity, they were nearly all the 'bad lads' but they really shone when they were on the football field and given praise for their efforts, they also accepted some discipline without running home to complain to a parent who would then storm into school making an almighty fuss. The change in them was wonderful to see.
Sadly apart from after school sports clubs there are now very few youth clubs offering kids somewhere to go, or other activities that would give them a sense of purpose.
Not all children thrive with a curriculum offering academic subjects, back in the 60s/70s there were vocational subjects which offered kids a chance to opt out of academic subjects and do something more constructive that would offer them employment after school. This could work again if more apprenticeships are offered and from an earlier age, 14 years, with an opt out from a traditional academic curriculum.
Of course more needs to be done but from the position of erstwhiles teachers I feel this is also important.

I don’t know what the answer is, but I find it really depressing to turn on the news each day, and see knife crime being reported yet again. Sadly I don’t see any end to it.

Galaxy

Barleyfields child was of course safer in a middle class town than in an inner city school in a deprived area. Pretending otherwise is letting those children down.

But to think there were no drugs around because it was a nice middle-class area in a small market town is wrong.

The children were perhaps safer but nowhere was immune from the scourge of drugs and violence.

Thinking otherwise means being completely oblivious to the reality.

Yes I admit to feeling bereft for both families tonight. Is this wrong of me?

Two families are devastated and broken tonight, admittedly one far far more than the other, but still. Sorry if that offends. My feelings are complicated. There are no winners in this stupidity.