‘Sir! Jason’s got a knife!’ What do I do now?

Last week a fifteen-year-old boy was stabbed to death at a school in Sheffield.

As a head teacher in an east London primary school, I had three occasions when I had to formally search children for what I would describe as a critical incident – twice for the suspected possession of a knife and once for suspected possession of a Class B drug. 

One day a boy came to me and said: ‘Sir! Jason [I’ll call him] has got a knife in school!’ ‘How do you know?’ I asked. ‘I’ve just seen him with it in the boys’ toilets. He’s waving it about and showing off with it. It’s one of those red ones, a Swiss army knife.’

This report came from a boy whom I knew to be a sensible kid and his description was credible, so I thought that gave me ‘reasonable grounds for suspicion’ to question ‘Jason’ and carry out a search if necessary.

So I went and found Jason, by now in the playground, and said to him: ‘Jason, a little bird has just told me that you’ve brought something into school today that you shouldn’t have. Is that right?’ ‘No,’ he said. ‘Now, just take your time about your answer, son, because you might not have meant to bring it in and now you’re embarrassed. You don’t need to be. Have you got a knife in school?’ ‘No.’ ‘Someone has told me they’ve seen you with a knife in the boys’ toilets. Tell me the truth. Have you brought a knife into school today?’ ‘No.’ ‘Now, as I said mate, you might not have meant to bring it in. It might have been in your pocket and you’ve forgotten it was there …’ ‘No. I told you. I haven’t got a knife! I told you that!’

Here’s a situation where, you always try to give children options to get out the tight corner they find themselves in. Try to de-escalate where you can. Always try to resolve a problem without humiliating a child or risk them losing face. Most kids will take those options where and when they are offered. But some won’t. Some will force you into a confrontation. In a situation like this where a knife is involved, I cannot avoid a confrontation if a child does not accept my offers to de-escalate.

So now I have to say to Jason: ‘Well listen, son, I’ve got reason to believe that you have a knife in school today so I’m going to search you. I’m going to search your pockets, your coat, your bag, your tray, your locker … and if I find that you’ve got a knife – or anything else that you shouldn’t have, I’m going to be very mad at you. So mad[DB1] , that I’m going to call your mum and ask her to come and get you and take you home, because I’m going to exclude you from school. Do you understand me?’

I let that sink in for a second. I’m not meaning to sound unnecessarily confrontational in such a situation as this but it is important I project a confident and assertive demeanour and be clear about what the repercussions of any lack of cooperation will mean. 

Then I said: ‘So, once again … are you absolutely sure … that you didn’t bring in a red Swiss Army penknife today by mistake?’ Jason looked down furtively. I could tell he was weighing up his options now. After a second or two, he said: ‘It’s not mine, Iit’s my brother’s. I think he put it in my coat pocket and I didn’t know it was there …’ ‘OK. Give it to me …’ I said. ‘I’ll keep it until home time. I’ll give it to your mum when she comes in and tell her you brought it in by mistake and that you won’t do it again. Will you?’ He shook his head. ‘Because if you do, mate …’ I said, stiffening my tone, ‘ I won’t accept the same excuse a second time. But for now … you’ve got a clean slate. All right?’ He nodded his head. He pulled out the knife from his pocket and gave it to me.

As busy and distracted as you will often be, you cannot ignore a situation in which a student might continue to be in possession of an offensive weapon. If I had received a report that Jason had a knife and my reaction had been to say: ‘I’m very busy at the moment, I’ll deal with it later …’ or if I had dismissed the report as unreliable, perhaps coming from a child who had a reputation for ‘telling tales’ about his classmates – then I have put myself in an untenable position. If Jason had gone on to take out his knife and use it, not only do we have a potentially critical and tragic incident, but now I’m really in trouble too – because I’d been given the relevant information and hadn’t responded to it appropriately.

As unpleasant as the notion is, the power to search is there for a reason and must be used when necessary. If your career in teaching lasts half as long as mine did, there will certainly be occasions when you will not be able to avoid using that power, either delegated to you by your head or when you are a head teacher one day yourself.

Some of my audiences who are training to be secondary and high school teachers are not always re-assured by that example of dealing with ‘Jason’. They are handling the behaviour of teenagers, many of whom are regularly carrying knives in the misguided belief they need them ‘for protection’ and will openly and defiantly refuse to be searched.

What do I do if a pupil refuses to be searched?

Let me just remind you by way of reassurance that this will be the responsibility of a head teacher or senior member of staff – not a early career teacher. A head teacher or an authorised member of senior staff will be bringing their full weight of experience and authority to bear in such situations. If you think one of your students is carrying a knife then do not attempt to carry out a search without your head teacher’s authority.

You could, of course, ask the pupil if he or she has a knife in their possession and if they admit they have, ask them to hand it over -– thereby obviating the need to carry out a search. In most cases though, that would be an unlikely scenario. It may also escalate beyond what you’re prepared or capable of dealing with. You will therefore, need to alert the head or a senior teacher immediately.

As I said earlier, if you have reasonable grounds for suspicion that an offensive weapon is being concealed, you can’t let a pupil walk around school carrying such a thing for any length of time once you know that.

Let’s imagine that the head or a delegated senior teacher has arrived and taken over the matter, and the pupil is still refusing to be searched. The head is certainly not going to use force to carry out a search. This is not an example where using reasonable force can be justified. Apart from the fact that it would involve an assault on the pupil – it is also a situation that could escalate dangerously. No, the head would not try to force the issue physically. They would escalate the matter another level by warning the pupil – saying something along the lines of: ‘If you won’t hand over the knife/drugs/stolen property voluntarily and you are refusing to be searched, then I’ll have to bring in your parents to take you home’ (in the way I threatened to do with ‘Jason’ earlier).

There have been occasions when I, as a head, had called parents and asked them to come into school and take their children home after a similar incident. Some parents refused. I remember one mother telling me in no uncertain terms over the phone: ‘I can’t come into school, I’m at work! You’re the head teacher! You deal with it!’

 In the case of a pupil suspected of carrying an offensive weapon refusing to be searched and the matter has escalated to parents with no cooperation resulting, the head would have no alternative but to escalate the matter further – and that might involve bringing in the police.

Clearly, everyone (especially the police) wants to avoid that. Sadly, however, we are living in times where the likelihood of such incidents is increasing. As I said earlier, good management of discipline is always seeking to de-escalate issues where possible. Good, experienced heads and senior teachers have a wide range of techniques for taking the steam out of heightened situations. Watch them carefully and learn.

This is an extract from my book:

"Becoming A Teacher - the legal, ethical and moral implications of entering society's most fundamental profession"

published by Crown House Publishing in the UK and also available on Amazon and at Waterstones and Foyles.