to think that this is not a suitable punishment for stabbing another child at school...

[ballstoit]

A Year 6 child at the junior school my DS is due to go to in September stabbed another child in the playground after school with a Stanley knife. He had carried the knife around all day, having brought it in from home and tried to stab the other child's face. The victim put their hand up in defence and was stabbed in the hand, and then the child was restrained by a parent before school staff also intervened.

The punishment, which according to the letter I have received tonight was approved by the police and 'Behaviour Support Team' in the council, is for the child to be kept in at lunchtime for a fortnight. The letter seems to be an attempt to calm the anger that a lot of parents feel about the incident. It doesn't detail the punishment but when I asked my DSs teacher she confirmed that this was the sanction the school had decided on.

AIBU to think this is not enough, and to be seriously concerned about my DS starting at this school in September?

Why has the child not been prosecuted? He has committed a violent crime against another pupil.

It is all well and good say that he may have issues or a difficult home life. This does not detract from the fact he attacked another pupil with a weapon.

I don't think the school should have released any details of the lads punishments.
It is none of your business.

@bubble FUD = Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt.

Can you explain how in the above cases how the needs of the victims are coming first?

The age of criminal responsibility in England and Wales is 10yr old.

As an experiment cut the headteacher with a stanley knife and see if his suggestion for dealing with it is the same. I suspect he willl have a different opinion when the person getting hurt is someone important

The problem with everything being kept behind closed doors is that you can't work out if anything is being done or its just being swept under the carpet (surely not, I hear you cry....)

The reason parents usually do go to the media is out of sheer frustration with apparent inaction, as it makes them Someone Important suddenly - and too often that is the only time when you start to see action.

I wonder what the motivation for the attack was? I would hold back on full on judgement till I knew.

I don't think the punishment is adequate, but I wouldn't like to cast this child to the wolves without a full understanding of the situation.

Thanks Omi

Sadly, I wouldn't be surprised if not very much is being done to support the victim. But we don't know for certain in this case that nothing is being done to support them. I don't think it's a matter of who's needs comes first, just that both parties get the adequate support that they need.

We also don't know that the victim's parents haven't been informed of any extra support or punishment that the attacker recieved.

The minimum age of age is 10, but between 10 and 14 is a grey area where it has to be proved that the child has enough understanding to appreciate the difference between 'naughty' and serious wrong doing.

OMG, are you in Leicester?? Only on wed I heard about the exact same thing!

"it has to be proved that the child has enough understanding to appreciate the difference between 'naughty' and serious wrong doing."

If "naughty" is pulling a knife and stabbing someone, the mind boggles as to what you have to do for "serious wrong doing"

( Thinking that shooting up the school may even warrant a Strong Telling Off..... )

Omigawd, I very much see your point of view, and I think I share it to a certain extent, but I'd be interested to know what you think should be done with the attacker in this situation?

@Bubble - if this happened in the workplace or in any other public place there would be far stronger action taken to pay, why should a school - where if anything the victims are more vulnerable - treat this so very differently?

Sorry, but I have ZERO sympathy for the attacker. I had an AWFUL childhood - I never attacked anyone. Having a similatr problem at DS1's school - boy has been terrorising DS1 since reception (now Y4), only 3 months ago I had DS1 at the hospital AGAIN same boy was kicking another boy from their class, DS1 intervened and said not to kick, so horrid boy (who has been doing karate for 4 yrs) kicked Fk out of DS1's knee - tearing the tendon. School's response? keeping the boy in at lunchtime for 3 days. And there is NO other school with spaces for me to move the ds's to.At least nexty year he'll be 10. If ANYTHING hsappens then, I'll not botherwith the schhol, I'm going STRAIGHT to the police!

ISITREALLY this from a govt website re 10-14yos

OK hypothetical question How would you feel if it turned out that the 'stabbee' had raped the stabbers 5 yo sister? I'm not suggesting this is likely, but just interested in whether it would change your POV?

I see what you are saying, I really do. It does seem very unfair that a child who has been attacked has to face a reminder of that every day in an environment where they should feel safe.

But it's treated differently to a workplace situation because in a workplace the attacker would be an adult, with a full understanding of the consequenses of their actions. An 11/10 yo is a child, who will know that the behaviour is wrong, but the consequenses are something s/he could not know. Even people on this thread are unsure of where the criminal responsibility begins.

Somewhere down the line, this child has been let down too. I just can't see any reason why a person so young would take a knife to school and use it if there wasn't something serious going on beforehand.

The child, even thought they have done something very very wrong, is still a child, who needs support.

Exclusion would not prevent the victim from never having to see that person again, and it would just put the problem onto another set of children. I imagine most parents would feel equally as outraged as the OP if they found out that a child who had been expelled because of a stabbing was about to join their school. But the child has to go to school somewhere, and there would probably be more chance of preventing something simelar from happening again if that child was kept among people he knows, with people who know him. The alternative is to just start all over again, maybe taking even longer to identify the child's problem, and longer to begin to resolve it.