- Friday, April 26, 2024
By: Keerthi Mohan
WORRIED parents are calling for metal detectors to be used at a Birmingham school after footage showed two students battling it out to see who can be crowned the “hardest.”
Teachers of Starbank School on Thursday (27) went on strike over concerns about violence and threats from pupils, and a teaching union said a “knife audit” needs to take place.
Ofsted had rated Starbank School “outstanding ” and called it “impressive” and “inspirational.”
Paul Nesbitt, a NASUWT national executive member, said police officers were called to the school this month when students smuggled in three knives, including a 12-inch blade.
“When you go to the school, it looks fantastic but once you get in there it’s a different story,” he was quoted as saying. “It’s like feral children, as one member said, they’re just running round doing their own thing.”
Saima Begum, who also has a daughter with special needs who attends the school, said parents were “really shocked” to find out “how deep this issue is”.
“Some of these little kids in Birmingham are not afraid to use a knife, but to know that it’s happening in the school your child attends, that’s a shock to the system,” she added.
A worried parent recently found a video on his son’s phone of two students fighting.
“I was appalled by what I found,” he said.
“I asked my son about it and he said there were regular fights, and that some of the pupils encouraged others to fight.
“He said the video on his phone was between the ‘two hardest students at Starbank’.
“He told me they fought to see who was the hardest.
“My son said the teachers just stand and watch,” the father continued.
According to reports, a teacher at the school was once threatened with a knife and another suffered a “split lip” after being hit by a year seven student last year.
Teachers’ union wants the school to carru out risk assessments on problem pupils and to ensure that senior staff responded in person immediately when panic alarms were used by teachers.
