In a bid to stop bringing weapons into school,see here, the government have now authorised teachers to be able to search suspects. I hope at the end of the day this will be a wake-up call to irresponsible parents who obviously dont seem to care what their offspring are taking to school. The do-gooders will obviously cry 'human rights' but personally I think its a good step towards a more civil soceity and I hope the ball has only just started rolling.

Bring back the cane..

I can see the attraction of this policy, but I'm cynical. Listening to Alan Johnson on the Today programme this morning being ultra-affable and leaning into his accent (as well as going off on a sob story about having a tough childhood) really does confirm to me that this new knife policy is more noise than substance. It's also quite a coincidence that it happens to have been announced just as the minister in question is standing for election for the Labour deputy leadership.

Let's imagine a teacher who, after having been trained in the search procedure, carries out a knife search on a pupil. The pupil, being somewhat less than angelic, decides to take his or her revenge on being searched by mistake by making a false allegation of inappropriate contact. Will this new law protect the teacher from being hounded by the press and threatened with legal action? Or is it no change?

Or let's imagine that it is alleged that pupils from one particular ethnic group are being over-represented in knife searches. Giving the statutory notice of a few days, OFSTED arrives for an inspection, notices the records that schools are obliged to keep, and consequently slates the school for being institutionally racist. Will this new law protect the school from being hounded by the press and threatened with special measures? Or is it no change?

There is obviously a need to tackle the growing menace of knives in schools, but the best that can be said about this new law is that it is a sticking plaster. While searches might help to deter the impressionable pupils who are under peer pressure to carry knives, and whose parents would be shocked if they knew, they are not going to deter the headcases. Teachers are trained to teach. What happened to the police?

I see your point TW and it is a very valid one. Some schools in London now employ security personnell perhaps this could then take the owness from the teachers. I work indirectly in this area and presumably because of workload the Police dont really want to know unless an offence is committed, so if a weapon is found then presumably the offender would be prosecuted. Waiting for the police can often result in any weapon being passed on or disposed with. At the end of the day I think the old system was too soft.

Whilst it seems sensible, I'm not sure i'd fancy this task if I was a teacher in a tough inner city school, would I get extra danger money?

Mainstream schools are just as prone to someone wealding a knife as inner city schools Jonesey, I would have thought. Its standing up to the minority of young people who cause this disruption which is important. The government now are working also on the power of restraint for teachers in schools from physically abusive youngsters. More information

It can happen anywhere you're right but i'd bet if you look at where incidents have actually occurred, the majority will be in the not so nice parts of London, Birmingham, Manchester and a few other big cities.

That's why it's London schools employing private security personell, not Cleobury Mortimer.

Still not sure about that Jonesey. Would you have predicted a shooting in Shrewsbury? Therefore anyone could pull an offensive weapon anywhere. You would be amazed at the stats on violence in rural areas in schools opposed to city schools its typical stereotyping really i.e. city =ghetto, gang culture violence.

Anywhere can have the odd incident, it's when it happens again and again in the same area that it becomes a pattern. The Metropolitan, West Midlands and Greater Manchester Police areas contain 21% of the UK population but 50% of the gun crime happens there. Knife crime is probably more spread out but i'd still think that these areas and maybe a couple of others have much more than their fair share.

Doesn't mean we should be complacent here though by any means.

At the last school I taught at (a middle-of-the-road comprehensive in the West Midlands), students being discovered carrying knives was not unheard of. In October 2003, for example, several newly arrived Year 7s (11-12 year olds) were given a day's suspension for being spotted carrying them on the school bus.

A useless punishment I know - a day's exclusion is a day's holiday and an opportunity to go on a shoplifting spree.

I can understand (although of course in no way condone) why some of them might have wanted to carry knives for personal protection, especially as some of the housing estates local to the school enjoyed a somewhat lively reputation - I didn't like walking round them myself after dark. However, that lot were carrying knives as status symbols.

BTW I'd agree with you on the dangers of stereotyping schools into countryside = good, inner city = bad. I'm not so naive now!!