A Knife In School

• Cyberbullying

• Non-especific

Scenario - A Year 7 pupil (male) brought a knife into school (the pupil is in Year 9 now, so this incident was approximately 2 years ago). This pupil was (and still is) a “good” pupil who had never been in any kind of trouble before. The pupil did not intend to use the knife. The pupil did it to try and impress other members of the year group/school. The pupil knew this was a massive mistake and was upset at their actions. The pupil’s parent’s came into school and he was spoken to about the seriousness of this matter. The pupil has not been in trouble since and is a high achieving pupil in many ‘top sets’ for most subject areas.

Bullying- However, some members of the boy’s year group found it amusing to taunt the boy about bringing a knife into school. Pictures of knives were posted onto the wall of his Facebook account in Year 8 (last year). The boy was very upset about this as he wanted to ‘move on’ from the mistake he had made. Most recently two Year 9 boys were taunting this boy (both whom were involved in the internet jibes in Year 8) and were making cruel remarks over the internet (and BBM- Blackberry Messenger- using mobile phones).

• The Year Leader (Head of Year 9) spoke to these boys and confronted them about their behaviour.

• Their parents were informed.

• The boys spent time in the Social Inclusion Room (SIR- a room where they are isolated from the rest of the school and spend the day alone; supervised by a member of staff) for their part in the taunting. This is used to take pupils who are misbehaving/ bullying out of circulation with other pupils that may feel threatened.

• The police were contacted (by the victim’s parents as the incident took place out of school) and both boys were spoken to by a Community Police Officer.

• Both of the pupil’s parents supported the school’s decision for this to be a matter for the police (due to the seriousness, as this problem originally involved a knife).

• Whereas the school recognises the importance of mobile phones, so pupils can contact parents/guardians, our whole school policy is that they are to be switched off and kept in pupil’s bags. This should limit communication to other pupils in school (through mediums such as Blackberry messenger).

Impact on the bullying action on the student as perceived by the original school-

Due to the fact that the police spoke to both boys in this incident, the school are very pleased with the impact that has had. There have been no more incidents (involving these boys targeting the other boy) at present.

Didactical pathway-

We believe that the pupils have been taught to let the school deal with serious incidents (such as bringing a knife into school).

The boys who taunted the other boy were sent to the Social Inclusion room; spoken to by senior members of staff and spoken to by the police. This will hopefully act as a deterrent to others who are thinking of behaving in a similar way.

Whereas cyber bullying is difficult to manage, as the majority of it takes place out of school, the school were very happy with the outcome of this individual case.

Students’ motivation-

The fact that this matter was dealt with in severe way, hopefully made the victim feel confident that it will be dealt with successfully in the future, should similar bullying/disparaging remarks take place.

The knock on effect for the ‘bullies’ will hopefully make them realise the severity if they are to repeat offend. They will hopefully consider their actions in other times on the strength of this incident.

Student’s results-

The victim seems pleased with the outcome. No other pupils seem to have mentioned the incident since. The ‘bullies’ have not done anything else since.

The involvement of senior members of staff and the police have put a strong message out to others who may have been thinking about involving themselves in this matter.

School’s integration issues-

The pupils (bullies) were placed in Social inclusion room (SIR) and were reintegrated into school when the staff felt-
i) They had been spoken to with regards to their conduct
ii) They were no longer a risk/ threat to the other pupil (victim)
iii) No further trouble would continue in relation to this particular incident.

Active citizenship-

Both boys (bullies) were spoken to by The Director of Pastoral Care and their Year Leader (Head of Year) whilst in SIR, with regards to their behaviour and the school’s expectations.

Both boys were spoken to by a Police Community Officer, with regards to the laws when posting such comments/abuse on the internet/through BBM.

School environment-

This School offers support for students for any incidents involving bullying. These include-
1. Tutors/Teachers/Support Staff
2. Year leaders (Head of Years 7-11)
3. Private Sessions as part of our Positive Initiative Programme (Specialised staff working with vulnerable/troubled pupils)
4. Open door policy of our School Chaplaincy team (Our school Chaplain works with many pupils regarding many different issues, some of which are bullying).
5. Peer support from our Oasis team and our prefects (2 different groups of Year 10 and 11 pupils who offer advice/support/help to the student community)
6. Support offered by the Director of Pastoral Care (Assistant Head Teacher responsible for pastoral support in school).

he case study was given to a number of pupils and their responses from a victims point of view were all very similar some key quotes were

‘ I Would feel alone, afraid and like I had no-one to turn to,’
‘ I would be really annoyed and angry’
‘ I would feel upset and angry at the bullies and would want them to be punished,’
‘ I would ask for help and if nothing was done I would want to move school’,
‘ I would feel upset and want the bullies to leave me alone’,
‘ I would be worried about the incident because if a good student brought a knife into school, think about what the worse student would do’,
I would be upset; he made a mistake and would be very hurt that people continued to remind me about what I had done.

All pupils agreed that the cause of the bullying had been the mistake that the younger pupil had made by bringing the knife into school. The feeling the group had was that he was very naïve in what he did and certainly did not deserve the cyber bullying that followed him. They felt the situation was very difficult because the boy who brought the knife in was in the wrong in the first place.

The pupils interviewed, when asked about who they felt about the bullying student were all very similar. Some key quotes were,

‘ I would feel very guilty about all the trouble I had caused this young boy’
‘ If that was me, When I looked back and thought about it I would feel bad ‘
‘I would feel scared, Sorry and regret what I did. I would be thinking about how I could get out of trouble ‘
‘I would regret either bullying him/her’
‘That person could get bullied in the future, so I would stop’
‘I’d feel worried, scared and depressed’
‘I would feel bad about what I had done and I would feel bad for the victim’
‘I would feel like my actions were wrong’
‘ I would feel stupid and humiliated because the victim had snitched on me, However, I wouldn’t feel alone because I was not the only one bullying’

The quotes highlighted the general discussion and viewpoints of most of the students who were asked about their viewpoints about what was happening. However, one student said during the discussion that

‘I would feel like I was the powerful one , as I would have doing the bullying and targeting him. I felt this comment was very telling was very telling and could be linked to why students bully in the first place. The notion of ‘being powerful’, was perhaps a student’s attempt to

Pupils interviewed stated that if they witnessed the incident mentioned in the case study they would feel

‘ Horrified, confused and scared they would bully me’,
‘ I would be appalled about the fact that fellow students could be so mean to a fellow student’,
‘ I’d feel confused about what to do, to tell someone or ignore it’,
If I witnessed this I would help the victim and try and make sure everything would be ok’
‘ Regretting to tell someone because you don’t want to get involved’,
‘ I would know not to do something similar because the police were involved’,
‘I would feel like I had to tell someone, I could not let this type of bullying slip though my fingers’.

This question had the biggest mix response, with some students feeling duty bound to help the victim and some feeling that they would not want to in the middle of such a tricky situation.

This was discussed with a fellow colleague at school and we feel that the problem arose because the school did not deal with the first issue well enough. We felt bringing a knife into school is a serious and dangerous thing to do no matter what the intentions of the ‘victim ‘. The seriousness of this event seems to not have been addressed well by the school and lead to other pupils making a ‘joke’ out of the situation. This should have been addressed in either assemblies, PHSE lessons or by tutors at the school. By not being addressed and almost being brushed under the carpet we felt that this sent a negative message to pupils that lead to the bullying.

The cyber bullying was clearly distressing and from talking to pupils at HGSC about this we can clearly see that most of them had a great deal of empathy for the victim. We felt the school dealt with this matter very well and eased the tensions in a very sensitive way. We felt that the victim would have felt confident in coming back to school after the incident had been dealt with and the bully would not have had al negative label attached to themselves but still would be aware of the consequences of his actions.

In many ways this is a complex issue involving not only the school, parents, students but also the police. There is also the issue about the impact of social networking in terms of cyber bullying and the difficulty in managing this as a school.

The key to all this is that the school has clearly defined procedures and policies and that the matter is dealt with professionally by all those involved following those procedures. Good communication is also an important consideration so that everyone feels the matter was dealt with properly, there are clear messages being sent out to students and parents and that there is a feeling that the outcome is both fair and just but also seeks to move things forward for all parties concerned, restorative practice being used where possible. Schools are not courts of law!

In terms of this particular scenario it is clear that the original knife incident is serious and that fact needs to be communicated to the student population and also parents. In many schools the original incident would have been punished regardless of whether there was police involvement or not. In the technological world we live in, policing cyber bullying is very difficult but alerting students and parents needs to be high on schools’ agendas. It is also important that pastoral staff continue to monitor the situation offering support as appropriate.

Parents asked about this situation were very satisfied with the way the situation was dealt with, within the case study. One parent in particular was quoted as saying..

‘From a parent's point of view, I think I would have been satisfied that the matter had been dealt with in an appropriate manner. It seemed to have had a positive outcome, both in terms of the victim and the bullies. Hopefully all those involved would have learned from the experience and moved on in a more responsible manner’.

However, one parent felt that the first incident was not dealt with well in the first place. They were happy with the way the bullies were dealt with but stated:

‘Firstly was there a punishment for the boy with the knife?
What sort of knife was it?

If I were the parents of the pupil who took the knife into school, I would have been more than pleased with the way it was dealt with because it reads that apart from being spoken to with his parents present, he got NO punishment.

If I were the parents of the ‘bullies’ I feel that was dealt with correctly for what they did, I would have removed their phones, internet, etc. grounded them and generally made them suffer, they would have to prove they could be trusted before these privileges were reinstated.

But if you compare it to what the ‘good’ boy did and got no punishment, how is this fair. Who decided that he wasn’t going to use the knife? He must have shown it to the boys for them to know about it. A knife is an offensive weapon, why wasn’t he excluded, spoken to by the police, put in isolation.
‘Good boys’ can commit crime.

This school has not reacted properly to the first boys’ crime. Where is the consistency? What happens next time someone takes a knife into school?

Far too lenient on the ‘good’ boy..

The school responded really well to the incident of bullying, however the first incident involving the knife seems to have been dealt with differently.

Possible additional actions: Anti-bullying assemblies/PSHE lessons/getting involved in anti-bullying week/possibly getting two sides together if appropriate. An emphasis on cyber bullying seems very relevant since a number of the pupils seemed unsure how to respond.

My actions as a counsellor would depend on who is telling me the information – if the victim, support him through the counselling and encourage him to report bullying to teacher/parent. If anyone else the nature of the work in the counselling would depend on if it was a friend/witness/one of the bullies. If the client wanted to disclose then I would support him/her through the process.

The report suggests that the impact of the incident was minimalised.

It appears that school did not bring in counselling support. Counselling could also perhaps have been offered to the boy who brought the knife to understand his motivation.

Counselling for the bullies could be benefical to enable them to explore why they were motivated to carry out the bullying
Counsellor could get involved in anti-bullying groups or peer mentoring.

From the report it seems as though there would be no long-term consequences for the student – he seems happy with the way he was treated and to treatment of those who bullied him. Check out with him if he needs some support – counselling as one option.

In many ways this is a complex issue involving not only the school, parents, students but also the police. Knife crime is becoming a major issue in this country and schools need to have prepared policies and procedures for dealing with students who bring knives into school. There is also the issue about the impact of social networking in terms of cyber bullying and the difficulty in managing this as a school. In our Authority we work closely with the police to ensure that there is always an appropriate response.

The key to all this is that the school has clearly defined procedures and policies and that the matter is dealt with professionally by all those involved following those procedures. Good communication is also an important consideration so that everyone feels the matter was dealt with properly, there are clear messages being sent out to students and parents and that there is a feeling that the outcome is both fair and just but also seeks to move things forward for all parties concerned, restorative practice being used where possible. Schools are not courts of law!

In terms of this particular scenario it is clear that the original knife incident is serious and that fact needs to be communicated to the student population and also parents. In many schools the original incident would have been punished regardless of whether there was police involvement or not. In the technological world we live in, policing cyber bullying is very difficult but alerting students and parents needs to be high on schools’ agendas. It is also important that pastoral staff continue to monitor the situation offering support as appropriate.

It is very clear from all parties involved in sharing this case study that this was a very difficult situation to deal with. Cyber bullying linked to a past serious incident involving a knife is a very complex and difficult situation to unpick. It would be only too easy to suggest that the boy had brought it upon himself by bringing the knife into school.

A lot of the adults interviewed as part of this process were not pleased with how the school coated over the original incident with the knife. Although they were sure that the school would have dealt with this; it was felt that this was not done in a way that concluded the situation and was generally felt that this lead to the cyber bullying – or it at least provided the atmosphere in which someone who was inclined could operate. The head of PSR, teachers and one of the parents were in agreement that this was glossed over and if it would have been dealt with well could have prevented the ongoing cyber bullying.

The majority of pupils involved had a lot of empathy towards the victim and seemed to not to acknowledge the past incident about the knife.

Everyone involved in the project felt that the cyber bullying was dealt with well at the second school but, with the increase in knife crime in Britain, I suspect that the initial incident would be dealt with differently today as many school will automatically exclude any student bringing a knife into school.

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