I will work to make Stourbridge become a knife free zone following my second summit on the issue attended by schools and organisations earlier this month.
The meeting at Old Swinford Hospital School came after Suzanne and Stourbridge FC chairman Andy Pountney sent all the schools in the constituency a joint letter inviting them to a roundtable discussion to talk about the impacts of knife crime and how everyone can work together to tackle it.
Pedmore High School, Ridgewood High School, OSH, Withymoor Primary School and King Edwards’s College all attended with Redhill School and Dudley College not attending but interested.
Andy Pountney, Mark Brindley from James Brindley Foundation, Kay Starkey from Midlands Air Ambulance, PC Andy Peters, West Midlands Police young persons officer, Carl Collins the Team Pumpkin Boxing Gym owner and Dianna Boeteng also came.
To make the constituency a knife free zone, I suggested that the next steps would be to involve children and organise to get Mark Brindley and Ade Passey – the father of Ryan Passey, who was killed by a knife in a Stourbridge nightclub, to go into schools to share their personal experiences.
The schools who attended were keen to get the children involved too.
Mark Brindley spoke about the importance of his full circle programme which is an accredited education tool for children and young people and an assessment tool for professionals.
In addition, the Midlands Air Ambulance said it offers CPR training in schools which the OSH headteacher was keen to investigate.
The schools said how they are concerned about knife crime among their students and have noticed a 'copycat' issue in Stourbridge where some children are wanting to follow trends online and think it is ‘cool’ to carry knives.
PC Peters encouraged schools to have anonymous boxes where children can put in intelligence about knives such as pupils, they know who carries them.
It was decided Pedmore High School would be the tester school to work out the details of the assemblies the group wanted to roll out to all the schools in Stourbridge.
Thank you once again to everyone who took the time to come to this meeting and show their passion to take knives out of our communities.
It was a positive and practical meeting and there is great support for Stourbridge to become knife free, through education and initiatives to stop knife carrying and crime.
It will take time and it won’t be easy but it is vitally important we take the first steps for the good of our young people. Working together with such committed heads, teachers, police officers and organisations we can do it. I am looking forward to developing a programme that will take this issue into our schools.
Assistant Principal of King Edward VI College Stuart Eaves said: “Meetings such as this are vital. The exchange of diverse experiences and knowledge among various stakeholders is key to addressing this critical issue.
“Change often begins with education, so we believe it is imperative for King Edward VI College to play a significant role in these discussions.
“We are heartened and encouraged by the actionable steps identified during this meeting and are fully committed to supporting their implementation.
“Our goal is to address and mitigate the tragedy affecting young people in our area. By embracing these measures, we reinforce our dedication to making a meaningful difference in the lives of our youth."
The Head of Old Swinford Hospital school Paul Kilbride said: “OSH was delighted to join discussions on this very important local and national issue, and in particular the place that education has in dealing with it.”
Kay Starkey, West Midlands Fundraising Executive for Midlands Air Ambulance Charity, said: “We are honoured to be part of Suzanne Webb MP’s Knife Summit. As an independent pre-hospital emergency service, we sadly attend a knife-related incident every single week on average. We are therefore passionate about supporting knife crime prevention and raising awareness of our free bleed control and CPR sessions to provide bystanders with vital lifesaving skills.”
