25 January 2008
Teachers have backed government plans to introduce metal detectors at school gates to stop pupils bringing in knives.
Hundreds of schools are set to get the equipment as part of a plan to be announced by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith next month to reduce violent behaviour.
Last week, a girl of 13 was stabbed in the chest and thigh at a London school, in the latest in a spate of stabbings.
John Dunford, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: 'There are schools serving areas where knife crime is high in the community. It's up to the head teacher to decide what is required to protect the pupils and sometimes that might involve the use of metal detectors.'
Margaret Morrissey, of the National Confederation of Parent-Teacher Associations, told BBC radio that the measures were 'obviously and sadly' necessary.
But she urged that those carrying out searches should not be put at risk. 'There's got to be a very secure backup to this idea,' she said.
The home secretary said: 'I think that it's a good idea if we look at the ways in which in some schools it might be appropriate to use search arches — because I want young people to know that it doesn't make them safer to carry a knife. It actually makes them more likely to be a victim.'
PFjan2008
