To send DS to school with a stab pack?

[PolkaDotMankini]

DS is in year 8 (ages 12-13) at senior school. It's a great school but DS has been caught up in a couple of fights this half term and I'm doing the classic mum worrying. After the first one I bought a couple of Israeli bandages. They're the type used for serious bleeding.

WIBU to send him on a first aid course and pack one of these bandages in his bag, just in case? DS thinks I'm being way OTT.

Parents your what’s your point in respect of the OP…. The Op shouldn’t move? OR Shouldn’t buy the Stab vest? Or shouldn’t do both?

I live in a SE commuter town.
I have very little cause to be worried about gangs and gun crime
i worry a heck of a lot about when my DC get their driving licences

if I lived where the OP does in a city and hardly anyone drives - then my worry would be flipped

if I lived in an area where there was high gun crime AND many teens drove - I would be worried about both!!

The worry as a parent is broad!

but what’s your point that should say

It is always a possibility, I went to a school where there were knives. But if you review crime stats they are very varied, the risk is not the same in every place.

The risk of knife crime in some areas are real and people are 'freaking' because it is not very jolly for your child to be seriously assaulted or murdered

It's probably nice to have the financial ability to do so. Pity that the children more likely to be exposed to such things most are those generally in the least economically and geographically mobile families.

OP, first aid is important - with the 'never attempt to remove a weapon and always call an ambulance for a stab wound, no matter how tiny it appears to be' drilled into him now.

The OP has already said that moving is a possibility.

you said that no one has ever turned up in school with a knife, as far as you know. so there have been no stabbing associated with the school and the kids that go there? in your area?

you are going on first aid course and buying bandages because your lad has been in a few fights?

how have you jumped from a few fights, to victim of knife crime?

@carefulcalculator I live inner city with relatively high knife crime. unless your kids are involved in gangs the likelihood of being stabbed, particularly at school is tiny..even the kids IN gangs rarely get stabbed. it would be interesting to hear how/why this is something that OP is fretting about

Can the school run a first aid course for all pupils? At least so they know how to apply pressure to a limb injury and how catastrophic stab injuries are. If they all learn some skills they are all going to be safer.

Also, look into whether there is an NGO in the area that can ram home the dangers of gang violence and how to avoid getting caught up in it.

Yes I know, I live in such an area.

My question is why people are telling the OP to go live in a caravan because of the extremely remote chance of her kid being stabbed, while they all go about driving their children everywhere despite the statistically higher chance that a child will be killed or injured in a car accident.

I mean, several thousand children a year are killed or injured on the roads, I think it is. But I don't see people being told to uproot their entire lives so they never have to put their kids in a car.

I'd prefer to spend my money on bringing first aid and self-defence providers into their school so that they can all benefit than on moving DS out.

This is a wonderful approach, @PolkaDotMankini

If you can find the right trainers, please emphasise conflict facilitation and violence de-escalation training. Kids can learn these skills remarkably effectively and will practice among their peers.

Better to defuse a situation, than have to physically defend yourself once it is underway, or have to patch people up afterwards.

All of them - defuse, defend, doctor - are valuable throughout life, especially if/as our world grows more precarious. (In case you need arguments to help sway others :)

Yes, this.
I've lived and taught in some very difficult areas and am certain that the risk of being a random victim of knife crime for most young men is very low.
Traffic accidents and alcohol/substance abuse issues are absolutely much more common.