Two boys, 13, arrested after knife found in group of brawling schoolchildren outside Petchey Academy
A file image of the Petchey Academy in Shacklewell Lane, Dalston. Picture: Isabel Infantes - Credit: Archant
Two 13-year-olds were arrested after a knife was found in a group of scrapping teenagers outside Dalston’s Petchey Academy.
It happened on Monday after about 20 youngsters were reported as “pushing and shoving” each other outside the secondary school in Shacklewell Lane at home time.
Police were looking into whether the blade could have come from the school’s D&T department, but the Petchey Academy said it wasn’t missing any tools. Cops were called at 3.45pm by a passer-by who saw the fracas.
Hackney police schools officer Pc Ian Turner told the Gazette: “A police unit was flagged down by a member of the public who indicated a group of youths were in school uniform and they had seen a knife within that group.
“Obviously the group was stopped and spoken to by the police during which time one knife was recovered, and two Year 8 students were arrested for possession of a pointed or bladed article in a public place.
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“They were pushing and shoving each other. It wasn’t a full-on fight but it was rowdy behaviour.”
He added the knife had “potentially come from the school”.
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“It’s not entirely clear where it’s come from at the moment, and the school are looking into the circumstances around what happened,” he said. “If it is found that the knife came from within the school then the appropriate lessons will be learned.”
Laura Shenton, communictions manager at The Petchey Academy, said: “The initial investigation here has shown that we aren’t missing anything.
“We have counted all the implements in our department of technology and we aren’t missing any.”
The two boys arrested have been interviewed and released under caution.
Pc Turner believes they are likely to be referred to the Youth Offending Team.
He said: “The most important thing is we got the knife off the street and are dealing with the kids proportionately.
“My schools officers will do knife awareness groups with the year groups involved and workshops so they know the consequences of carrying weapons. Knife crime is a concern at the moment.”
