School alert after pupil's knife charge
A schoolboy has been charged by police after a knife incident near an Inverness school.
Officers were alerted to reports of a disturbance and found the boy, aged under 13 and a pupil of Culloden Academy, allegedly in possession of the weapon.
It is understood that the boy had been involved in an altercation with another male pupil but that no-one was injured.
Police went to Culloden Avenue after receiving a call regarding the incident which happened outside at 1.30pm on Wednesday.
A spokeswoman for Police Scotland at Inverness said: "We were called to a disturbance outside the school.
"A male child was found to be in possession of a knife and has been charged in connection with that, and will be the subject of a report to the Children’s Reporter.
"Another schoolboy was involved in the disturbance but no-one was injured."
The shocking incident brought back memories of a tragic death at an Aberdeen secondary school last year after a 16-year-old pupil was stabbed by another schoolboy.
The Inverness incident led to Culloden Academy rector James Vance immediately sending out letters to parents and carers of the school’s 1099 pupils, and arranging special assemblies over the next few weeks to give advice about the carrying of knives or other weapons.
The letter stated: "There was an incident at lunch-time on Wednesday involving pupils, in Culloden Avenue, outwith the grounds of Culloden Academy, which was reported immediately to the police.
"A child has been reported to the Children’s Reporter in connection with the possession of a bladed article, therefore I cannot comment further on the incident at this time.
"Such incidents are rare, however the school takes such incidents extremely seriously and will be holding special assemblies over the next few weeks to provide advice to pupils."
Highland Council refused to confirm whether any pupil had been suspended or excluded from the school as a result of the incident.
Highland councillor Donnie Kerr said: "It is always worrying when children of that age are handling knives. There have been calls for metal detectors to be used at schools, but I think we are a good way short of that situation that they have in some schools in the USA.
"There is not a culture of knife carrying among children in the Highlands but it must be emphasised that no weapons should be taken to school, or indeed anywhere in public.
"It makes me uneasy because schoolkids can fall out over anything and when the red mist comes down, if you have a knife there might be a temptation to use it. You then have the potential for two young lives to be ruined."
The tragic Aberdeen incident involved Cults Academy pupil Bailey Gwynne who suffered a fatal knife wound to his heart following a row during his lunch break on October 28, last year.
Another 16-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was accused of murder. He denied the charge but admitted striking Bailey with a knife during a fight.
He was jailed for nine years after being found guilty of the lesser charge of culpable homicide.
An inquiry later found that the fatal stabbing was "potentially avoidable" if teachers had been told a pupil carried weapons.
The report said the Scottish Government should consider legal changes to give teachers more power to search pupils.
Scotland’s justice secretary Michael Matheson said the Scottish Government would consider the findings and report back in due course.
A five-day trial at the High Court in Aberdeen heard this involved an argument over a biscuit.
A friend of the boy who killed Bailey told the court he had shown him a knife and knuckledusters he had in his possession on several occasions from the end of 2014.
The report, which referred to the killer as Child A, said: "The course of the conflict was fatally altered by the possession of a bladed weapon by one of the boys. This was potentially predictable and avoidable if those who knew Child A carried weapons in school had reported this to staff."
The inquiry into issues raised by the tragedy was led by Andrew Lowe, chairman of child and adult protection for Renfrewshire.
Mr Lowe said after the inquiry: "I’m pretty confident that this young man didn’t go to school imagining he was going to take away the life of a fellow pupil who wasn’t, incidentally, his enemy.
"This was just one of those dreadful things that can occur if one carries weapons."
In April this year the council moved to reassure parents after two teenagers were caught with knives at Inverness High School.
At that time, figures released by the council showed that in the last five years there have only been 10 reported cases of threats of assault with a weapon in Highland schools.
