Our schools lead knife revolt

Russell Steele 1627 - 1627 • Published 19 Jun 2009 14:00

PUPILS at a Port Glasgow secondary school are the first in Scotland to take part in a pioneering anti-knife crime education programme, the Tele can reveal.

Over the past four weeks, second-year students at St Stephen"s High have been participating in a radical pilot initiative designed to heighten awareness of knife crime among young people and prevent them from making the wrong lifestyle choices.

The pilot is part of the £500,000 No Knives, Better Lives campaign - and Inverclyde the launchpad.

Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill said: 'Far too many lives are lost or damaged through acts of mindless violence. We know the knife culture blighting many Scottish communities, including Inverclyde, is often to blame.

'I believe Inverclyde will see the benefits of No Knives, Better Lives. We are also keen to make sure all of Scotland benefits and this model will be rolling out in other areas of Scotland shortly.'

The initiative"s arrival comes just months after the Tele"s groundbreaking Inverclyde Knife Crime Conference saw readers call for a hard-hitting education drive in schools to tackle the scourge of blades and the havoc they wreak in our community.

Now the Scottish Government has chosen Inverclyde to conduct a trial of its progressive scheme, run by a violence reduction team attached to its community safety unit.

Councillor Robert Moran, who heads Inverclyde Council"s safe, sustainable communities committee, said: 'Inverclyde is glad to be at the forefront of this campaign. We must educate people, especially the young, to think twice before carrying a knife.'

The St Stephen"s pilot, kept tightly under wraps until today"s Tele exclusive, has been declared a huge success and is now set to be rolled out across Inverclyde - before being implemented nationally.

Over the past four weeks, more than 100 pupils at St Stephen"s have spent their Wednesday mornings taking part in hard-hitting workshops, talks and interactive learning sessions.

They have met Scottish Rocks basketball skipper Rob Yanders, who spoke about gang life in his home town of Chicago, and whose brother died in his arms after being shot.

The pupils heard from life coach James Renicks, a reformed offender who served time behind bars for knife crimes and from surgeons from the Medics Against Violence group.

They have also taken part in interactive drama workshops looking at knife-carrying and the potentially lethal consequences it brings.

The education programme has been introduced at St Stephen"s by Gerry McDonnell, an expert teaching adviser for the Scottish Government.

Mr McDonnell, from the Government"s community safety unit, said: 'The feedback so far from the pupils has been fantastic.'

The preventative initiative is one strand of the Government"s approach to tackling knife crime and has four key aims:

• To raise awareness of knife crime

and gangs and help young people avoid the dangers they bring:

• Discuss and explode popular myths behind knife-carrying,

• Prevent youngsters from considering knife carrying,

• Reduce violent incidents at schools and the local community.

Mr McDonnell said: 'We want to drive home the message that anyone who thinks they are carrying a knife for their own protection is very much barking up the wrong tree - and more likely to become a victim.'

And Mr McDonnell explained why Inverclyde was chosen for the pilot.

He said: 'We are aware knife crime is high on the agenda locally and we know of the tremendous campaigning work done by anti-blade campaigner John Muir.

'The idea is to test the programme out at St Stephen"s, evaluate it, then roll it out initially in Inverclyde. Then further down the line we would want to implement the project right across Scotland.'

Tom Callan, the school"s depute head teacher, said: 'A total of 120 pupils have participated in the programme and it has gone down very well indeed.'

Campaigner John Muir, from Inverkip, welcomed the pilot scheme.

He said: 'If we want to see real change we need our young people to be at the heart of our efforts.

'It is them who are the adults and parents of the future, so by working with them now we can begin to change the culture of knife carrying.'

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This article appeared in Greenock Telegraph 19 Jun 09

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