Unions call for tougher school security

Thursday, 6 November 2003 12:00 AM

The Government is facing calls from teaching unions to toughen up security at schools up and down the country, in the wake of the tragic murder of Luke Walmsley.

The National Association of Schoolmasters' Union of Women Teachers said both staff and children were prey to assault in schools.

Chris Keates, NASUWT deputy general secretary said Luke's fatal stabbing, allegedly by a fellow pupil at the school, was a "tragic example" of how street weapons had spilled over into "the once relative calm and security of schools."

She warned there was an increasing tendency for a small number of adolescents to carry knives and guns.

She said her union would be writing to the Department for Education and Skills and the Home Office to ask for a reassessment of school security and whether extant measures offered "sufficient, reasonable protection" against Britain's "weapon-carrying culture."

The DfES, for its part, said it would give "careful consideration" to the NASUWT's suggestions.

Chief schools inspector David Bell said despite the "terrible tragedy" at Birkbeck School in Lincolnshire, it was premature to draw any conclusions about declining standards of security in state education.

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