Tonight with Andrew Marr 6pm - 7pm
Calls for mandatory knife crime education after 7-year-old caught with blade at school
22 July 2021, 09:03
Knife crime campaigner calls for mandatory education
There are calls for mandatory knife crime and violence education after a 7-year-old was caught with a blade at school.
After it was revealed a seven-year-old boy took a knife into his London primary school last month intending to "stab another boy at an after-school club” Nick Ferrari spoke to an expert
The Evening Standard reported teachers became aware of the boy brandishing a large kitchen knife at his school in Croydon and confiscated it — and the headteacher called in the frontline charity Lives Not Knives to give the seven-year-old one-to-one mentoring.
Eliza Rebeiro, the founder of Lives Not Knives, which provides workshops and assemblies in schools, told Nick Ferrari there needed to be better education for teachers to help spot the signs a child is entering a life of knife crime.
Nick asked the knife crime campaigner if she believed the seven-year-old knew the difference between right and wrong.
"I think he knows bringing a knife into school is wrong but I don't think he understands the consequences."
Nick asked Eliza what she thought motivated a seven-year-old to carry a knife to school.
The answer was shocking, she said the ages of people carrying knives was getting "younger and younger."
Calling for mandatory knife crime education in schools Eliza explained she did not want to "take away" childhood, but said children needed to be educated to the dangers.