Children as young as nine are threatening each other with knives in school, campaigner warns
Campaigner and dad-of-two Garvin Snell says he was 'seriously alarmed' by the rise in violent playground threats in the past six months
KIDS as young as NINE are threatening each other with knives in primary schools, a leading anti-stabbing campaigner has revealed.
Youth worker Garvin Snell – who runs workshops for children to prevent gang crime - said he has been “seriously alarmed” by the rise in violent playground threats in the past six months.
He spoke out amid the knife crime epidemic sweeping Britain, which has seen a record 45 knife killings in 2019 already.
Father-of-two Garvin, 38, who visits dozens of schools a month with his firm No Shame in Running, told the Sun on Sunday: “In the playground, primary school kids are hanging around in packs.
They are replicating what they are seeing out of school.
“They are threatening to stab other kids. We are hearing them talk about knives.
“They are saying ‘I’m going to stab you.’ It’s happening more and more often.”
USING KNIVES HAS BECOME NORMALISED
Today Garvin sets out a clear seven point plan on how to react to the threat of a knife attack.
He also praised the Sun on Sunday’s Beat the Blades campaign – saying: “It’s raising real awareness and showing people just how much it needs to be addressed, there is no place for knives on the streets.”
Garvin, who has spent 12 years as a youth worker, has become an internet sensation after posting a self-defence video with his 14-year-old son last year on how to react to a knife attack. It has been viewed more than one million times.
Talking about how the video came about, Garvin, from Hounslow, west London, said: “My son was threatened recently and I asked my son what he would do if someone came at him with a knife again and he said he’d fight them. So I said, ‘No, you just run.’ It inspired me to do the video.”
Startling new stats have shown Under 18s convicted of murder and manslaughter with a knife rose by 77 per cent between 2016 and 2018. Schoolboy Jaden Moodie, 14, is the youngest victim of the knife crime in 2019.
With his firm - set up last year - Garvin now goes to primary schools across West and North London providing workshops and advice to children who are showing signs of violence or gang-type behaviour.
He said: “Staff identify any children who are displaying any kind of gang culture or if there is any history of violence in their family and I go in and provide work-shops, talks in assemblies and sessions to talk about knives and self-defence. My advice is quite simple - just run, don’t confront a knife attacker.”
He has now applied for funding to set up a youth centres the UK’s major cities.
Garvin's advice on how to react if confronted with a knife attacker
1. Run away if you can, there’s no shame in running. Get as far away from the knife as possible.
2. If you can’t run away, give them what they want if they are trying to rob you. You can replace possessions, but you can’t replace life.
3. Don’t be afraid to tell your parents or your school if you know someone is carrying a knife. It’s not ‘grassing up’ it’s saving a life, whether it’s their life, your life or someone else’s.
4. Try to avoid confrontation.
5. If you’re going to a party, try to arrange to get picked up by a parent or someone else at the end of it.
6. Let your parents know when you are going out and where you will be.
7. Don’t carry a knife. Around 80 per cent of people who are stabbed are carrying a knife in the first place. Carrying a knife is pretty much like stabbing yourself in the back.
He added: “Carrying and using knives has become normalised. I’ve been campaigning about knife crime for five years, there’s nothing for these kids to do, nowhere for them to go.
“Almost all youth centres and community centres are gone and if you look around London, there’s an aggressive building programme going on. They are building thousands and thousands of houses on top of each other. People are living on top of each other and you’re losing that community spirit.
“Where you’re seeing the government saying they are going to spend £100million on more police officers, why not spend some of that money on giving the young people something to do or somewhere to go, so they’re not just hanging around on street corners?
“What I’d like to see in every borough of London is two or three youth violence reduction centres - and then move that out major cities across the country.
“I’d like to see all different agencies from working out of these facilities or using these or referring children to them.
“Whether it’s schools, social services, youth services, the police, but having a central place to work together. Young people can hand in weapons there. I want it to be a youth information centre, with computers so they can do their CVs, look at different careers, and have workshops and motivational type sessions.
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“I’m trying to make kids in primary schools understand that their social circles can affect their day-to-day life, their home life, their education. That behaviour restricts them from everything else. It’s about breaking that cycle, having a more positive outlook on themselves and having a bit of self-reflection. It’s about making them understand what to do better to achieve more.”
“We have to confront this problem together, we could all our kids could be confronted with a knife attack and need everyone to be aware of it.”
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