A Sheffield knife crime campaigner has called for change as he claims that the police and the government are not doing enough to prevent knife attacks.
Anthony ‘Big Ant‘ Olaseinde, a campaigner from the organisation ‘Always an Alternative’ believes that the reason for the rise in knife crime is an issue regarding young people’s mindsets and a lack of trust between communities and the police.
This follows the recent knife attack in a Sheffield school and the resulting death of a 15-year-old school boy named Harvey Willgoose.
Big Ant has visited 24 secondary schools across South Yorkshire to discuss knife crime and organized several projects including weapon bins.
This is the second call for reform in schools after Mark Willgoose, father of Harvey Willgoose, called for the implementation of knife arches into schools.
The parents of Harvey Wilgoose said: “That’s what we’re pushing for. We just want to keep kids safe. We just don’t want anyone to go through what we have.”
Mr Olaseinde said: “We went into schools and we realised that the knife wasn’t really the problem, it was the mindset of the person holding it”.
Big Ant’s call for action comes after a survey commissioned by Sky News which found that 18 percent, or one in five teachers admitted they’ve seen a student carrying a knife in school. Results have also found that six percent of teachers admitted to being aware of a student carrying a knife in the past year alone.
Big Ant said: “We started looking at more deep rooted issues, looking at teaching and how to deal with conflict”
Sharing the importance of educating younger people, he said: “They are especially good because they are on knife crime and serious youth violence which will help prevent them from making a poor life choice”.
Research statistics from a teacher specific survey tool, Teacher Tapp, highlights around 90 percent of teachers have not been given any training on how to appropriately handle knife crime related instances.
Statistics from South Yorkshire Police in 2019 found that 26 percent of named knife crime related offenders were under the age of 18, committing a range of offences from possession to murder.