Scotland’s justice secretary has been urged to encourage the roll-out of anti-weapon lessons in classrooms after a 150% rise in knife crime in schools across Aberdeen.
In the Scottish Parliament, Liam Kerr MSP warned of a “weapon-carrying culture” in schools after several “frightening” incidents across regions such as the North East.
In Aberdeen, more than 40 weapons have been seized from the city’s schools since the beginning of 2024, including knives, BB guns, razor blades and a nitrous oxide cannister.
Police Scotland figures released in August showed a 150% increase in knife incidents in Aberdeen’s schools between April 2024 and March this year.
This follows scenes at Hazlehead Academy in April where a 14-year-old girl was charged after another girl was injured in an alleged knife attack.
In May, a pupil was charged by police after an incident involving a knife at Laurencekirk Primary in Aberdeenshire.
And just last month, pupils were searched after two kitchen knives were reported missing from a classroom at Banchory Academy.
At Holyrood, North East MSP Liam Kerr called on SNP justice secretary Angela Constance to look at rolling out anti-weapon lessons to alleviate an “epidemic” of classroom violence.
In her response, she said: “Mr Kerr is quite correct that the work that takes place in our schools should support good behaviour and ensures our children have the skills and resilience to lead successful lives, and that includes law-abiding lives.”
Afterwards, Mr Kerr, the Scottish Conservative shadow justice secretary, said: “The justice secretary cannot turn a blind eye to this.
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“Schools across Scotland are seeing an epidemic of frightening incidents involving weapons, most notably in Aberdeen.
“It is now becoming a necessity that anti-weapon lessons are rolled out to put a halt to this weapon-carrying culture which has been allowed to spiral under this Scottish Government.
“She must urgently work with Police Scotland, schools and the education minister to look at how anti-weapon lessons can be rolled out to ensure a zero-tolerance approach to violence in our classrooms.”
