School knife ban

By Kelly Yates
A BERWICK school principal has banned the use of knives in art classes after a Grade 6 student used a box cutter in a “threatening manner.”
Henry Grossek from Berwick Lodge Primary School told the News the boy was doing construction work using the box cutter when for unknown reasons he became upset and started waving the knife around. The boy then refused to hand the box cutter back to the classroom teacher.
Mr Grossek placed an immediate temporary ban on all classroom activities involving box cutters at the Mansfield Street school. While no-one was hurt at Berwick Lodge Primary School, Mr Grossek is concerned about a rising number of cases involving knives both inside and outside school.
“I was worried, frustrated and upset at the situation,” Mr Grossek said. “Several parents got in contact with me. The safest and quickest thing to do was put a ban on them immediately and then work through the issue.”
The recent incident, where the boy received a detention, follows one last year when another student at the school got a steak knife from the staff room and pointed at his chest, threatening to harm himself by saying “dare me.”
Mr Grossek has also had several mothers come to him over the past 18 months with concerns about their children threatening them with knives. He believes another problem related to children and knife violence is the issue of anti-social young people and how they deal with it.
“We are seeing more troubled kids, more kids with serious learning disabilities and families in crisis,” he said.
“And we just don’t have the resources to meet their specific needs.”
A State Government spokesman said Victorian Government schools were overwhelmingly safe places, with incidents involving knives still uncommon.