A CALL for senior teachers to be allowed to search pupils they suspect of carrying weapons will be discussed by Inverclyde’s education committee.
It follows a recommendation by a multi-agency probe into the stabbing to death of 16-year-old Bailey Gwynne, pictured, at Cults Academy in Aberdeen last October.
The investigation called on the Scottish Government to consider changing the law to give teachers more power to search pupils.
The inquiry was led by Andrew Lowe, chairman of child and adult protection for Renfrewshire.
Asked at a press conference whether he would like to see a change in the law to allow teachers to search pupils without consent, he answered: “I would like to see a scenario where senior school staff were so empowered, yes.”
Inverclyde Council leader Stephen McCabe said it was a very distressing case and a cause for concern.
He said: “It’s important we look at the report and reflect on it. I’ll be asking for it to go before the education committee for discussion to see what lessons can be learned.
“There are concerns about how you would actually implement such searches. Teachers would need to be careful, because it could be dangerous.”
The EIS teaching union said it could not support the ‘routine screening and searching of pupils’.
EIS general secretary Larry Flanagan said: “Such actions are likely, over time, to undermine the trust and respect which exist between pupils and school staff, and undermine the efforts to forge an open, supportive and inclusive school community.”
A spokesman for Inverclyde Council said it works closely with a range of agencies and services, including Police Scotland, to raise awareness of safety issues in and out of school premises, and to ensure schools are safe places to learn.
He added: “Inverclyde was at the forefront in Scotland, for example, of the innovative Mentors in Violence Prevention programme, run in partnership with the Violence Reduction Unit and designed to provide by-standers to violence with a positive and pro-active role in supporting and challenging peers while keeping them safe within their community.”
The inquiry concluded that Bailey’s death might have been avoided if those who knew his killer carried weapons had reported it to staff. Mr Lowe’s report makes 21 recommendations, including further legislative controls on the purchase of weapons online and that parents should be sent a letter setting out school rules about weapons, which should be signed and returned.
He said it was difficult for teachers to get consent to search a pupil, in accordance with current law, and that consent was not always forthcoming.