Bailey Gwynne death: Union rules out school knife searches

The EIS said searches without consent would put their members at risk

A teaching union has warned against changing the law to allow school staff to search pupils without consent.

It comes after a review into the death of Bailey Gwynne found his death was "potentially avoidable" if teachers had known his attacker carried a knife.

The EIS said future searches could turn their members into "prison wardens" and put them at risk.

Bailey Gwynne died in October last year after a boy stabbed him during a fight at Cults Academy in Aberdeen.

The review, conducted by child welfare professional Andrew Lowe, made 21 recommendations including a call for legal changes to give teachers more power to search pupils.

'Undermine trust'

Justice Secretary Michael Matheson said the Scottish government would consider the findings and report back in due course.

However, both the EIS and NASUWT have rejected the proposal on safety grounds and said it could lead to future claims against teachers.

Louise Wilson from the EIS told BBC radio Scotland: "We think it would undermine the teacher pupil relationship. It would undermine trust. It would almost be rather like being a prison warden rather than a teacher.

Bailey Gwynne was stabbed in school last October

"Possibly, if there were incidents arising, it could also escalate those incidents. We think there's better ways of trying to reduce the risk of violent incidents in schools rather than having teachers take on the role of searcher."

Following the death of Bailey Gwynne, police were called to incidents at six secondary schools in Aberdeenshire and Moray in December where weapons were recovered.

Police said seven secondary school pupils were reported as a result.

'Wider implications'

Insp Colin Taylor, who leads a team of eight officers liaising with schools across Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire, denied there was a particular issue with knives in the area.

He told BBC Scotland's Good Morning Scotland programme: "I think it's probably more of a reflection of the raised awareness of it in the wake of the incident which took place at Cults. It came far more into the psyche of young people involved.

"They became far more aware of these sorts of incidents and the wider implications of them and became a lot more proactive in reporting it to their parents and their teachers and that I think was reflected in the number of incidents which very quickly began to be reported after the Bailey Gwynne incident."

Police have so far visited all S2 pupils in the classroom in Moray in Aberdeenshire to discuss knife crime.

They are now widening that initiative to include S1 pupils in Aberdeen city.

Police said more incidents had been reported since the incident at Cults Academy in Aberdeen