A Leeds mum claims knife crime has been plaguing her children’s journeys to school to the point where she daren’t let her kids walk in alone.
Security guards are now employed to pace around Co-op Academy in Stoney Rock Lane, Burmantofts, with the school confirming they have been hired externally. If there are "reasonable grounds" to believe students are bringing something into school which is unsafe for themselves or other pupils, bag and pocket searches are conducted.
The Burmantofts area came out as the worst ‘sharp weapons’ hotspot in Leeds over the past year, with the most incidents involving under-25s, tied with Little London, Woodhouse.
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Claire, 44, who didn’t want her last name published, say she will not let her children, aged 15 and 16, who currently attend the school, to walk in alone and drives them to the gates every morning. She claims they’ve had knives pulled on them multiple times en route to school.
Claire said: “I don’t let my children walk to school on their own because I don’t trust the area. I take my kids wherever they need to go. The school is literally a 10-minute walk. It’s happened a couple of times where children had knives pulled out on them. A girl got assaulted going to school one morning.”
Her son, 16, said: “It’s got so bad in our school that we’ve even got security guards walking around.” He added: “You don’t get patted down at school but you’d get patted down at a fair.
Claire said: “I’m fuming but I don’t fear for my children’s life. I fear for the person that’s done it to them, because if I see them then I’d hit them with my car. It feels like you’ve got to deal with it yourself.”
Safety is 'first priority' says Co-op Academy
Brian Kelly, Executive Headteacher of the Co-op Multi Academy Trust in West Yorkshire, said the trust will be “reviewing our processes” to see how they can influence safety outside the school gates. The head has emphasised that safety within the school is their “first priority” and have a Safer Schools Police Officer on site daily, along with an external security team.
Mr Kelly said: "Student safety is the first priority for our school and something we take very seriously. We are a school striving to provide an excellent education to enable social mobility in Harehills and Burmantofts, and to do that our students need to feel safe. To protect our students we have invested in site security with electronic gates, measures to restrict access for pedestrians and vehicles. Staff are on the gates every day to greet students and ensure their safety when entering and exiting Co-op Academy Leeds.
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“We have an experienced Safer Schools Police Officer on site daily, who is well known by the Academy Community. He works with our students continuously, to provide knife awareness and crime awareness courses.
“We are only truly able to ensure student safety once students are on our site, however we share our families concerns and are working with our community through multiple projects to try and ensure the safety of our students and the wider community outside of school. We feel that it is our job to not only provide an excellent education but to also invest something meaningful and long lasting in this community. We take this concern very seriously and will be reviewing our processes to see what influence we can have on safety outside of the school gates.”
Police take 'robust and proactive approach'
Asked how they're dealing with knife crime in the Burmantofts area, West Yorkshire Police Detective Superintendent Jaz Khan, Head of Crime for Leeds District, said: “We continue to take a very robust and proactive approach to tackling serious violence involving rival criminal groups, which has clear links to the organised supply of drugs at street level.
“We have seen a number of incidents, primarily in east Leeds, with young teenage males armed with knives inflicting and receiving very serious injuries. These cause understandable concern in our communities and cannot be tolerated.
“We work closely with our partner agencies to address these issues in a number of ways, from specialist officers using a range of tactics to tackle serious and organised crime under Programme Precision to focused activity under Operation Jemlock targeting hotspot areas to reduce knife crime.
“There have been significant numbers of arrests and charges, and large quantities of weapons, drugs and cash have been seized.
“We have also made very effective use of increased stop and search powers under Section 60 to disrupt and deter the carrying of knives, and explore civil orders alongside criminal prosecutions to limit the harm offenders can cause.
“Officers from our local neighbourhood policing teams continue to play a key role in supporting and reassuring our communities and identifying and disrupting those who carry weapons and involve themselves in incidents of this nature.
“We know communities are supportive of our efforts to take positive action against those involved in these incidents, and I want to reassure them that we will be continuing to do everything we can to keep their areas safe.”
