'Why we have to guard our pupils'

By Paul Burnell
BBC Seven Days

Martin Dinnegan was stabbed to death last year

In the wake of concern about the level of knife crime among young people, one London teacher tells of the extraordinary lengths he and his staff go to, to keep their pupils safe.

Headteacher Tom Mannion surveyed the street from his seat on a London bus and pointed to where one of his pupils was stabbed last month.

"Just across the way there was the stabbing two Sundays ago - again one of boys was caught up in that so you have to be here."

The boy was stabbed in the back and lost "an incredible amount of blood", Mr Mannion continued.

"He actually died and was brought back by the paramedics."

Three boys from the school have been involved in stabbing incidents in the past year.

Bus vigil

Mr Mannion and his senior colleagues have kept a daily vigil, since his appointment as head four years ago, escorting their pupils on the bus to and from St Aloysius RC College for boys in Highgate.

At Archway stop, a few minutes ride away from the school, Mr Mannion and his team wait until all the boys have caught the different buses to various estates of north London.

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Said one boy, "It's like being with my dad, because he (Mr Mannion) looks after me and it is like being protected."

Mr Mannion cannot protect them from the teenage knife crime epidemic on the streets but at least the journey to school can be safer.

"You keep looking through your job description, there's lots of things not in there," he said.

"But it is right you are here, it is right you are with the boys," Mr Mannion explained.

'Shocking attack'

One former pupil was stabbed to death last Christmas, just a term after he left St Aloysius.

"It's just terrible absolutely shocking," said Mr Mannion.

Just under a year ago another pupil Martin Dinnegan, 14, was stabbed to death on the streets of Islington.

A lot of the boys living on the estates find themselves being drawn into this sort of thing and don't want to be Bill Lawrence, Deputy-head St Aloysius RC College

Deputy-head at St Aloysius, Bill Lawrence said: "Martin's death had a profound effect on the school."

St Aloysius is on the edge of Highgate, one of London's most affluent neighbourhoods, but most of its boys live down the hill in estates.

The school tries hard to keep knives out of the classroom but as Mr Lawrence explained, there is a different rule on the estates.

"There is a gang culture and the use of knives but a lot of the boys living on the estates find themselves being drawn into this sort of thing and don't want to be."

Streets of fear

The result is that teenagers in one of the world's most cosmopolitan cities are afraid to leave the security of their own estate or neighbourhood.

"I heard it was happening in the news but when it came to our school, I thought if it could happen to him (Martin Dinnegan) it could really happen to any of us," one boy from St Aloysius told the BBC.

Another added, "A lot of kids because they see knife crime going on - to protect themselves they carry knives - and that is how this sort of thing happens."

As one teenager put it, "I just try to look as anonymous as possible."

Youth worker Michael Potten, 19, once regularly excluded from St Aloysius but now a campaigner against knife crime, said street violence and territorial tension is not new.

But added, "The escalation is very new because of the weapons involved."

He is sceptical of shock publicity tactics such as a government anti-knife film available on social network sites like Bebo.

Stop and search

"People have got things like that on their mobile phones, it's no big deal," he said.

Yet he backs tough police measures like stop and search.

Why couldn't you have taken a stand then, why do you have to wait for things to get so bad before you start doing something? Michael Potten, youth worker

"I think it is a brilliant idea but I don't understand why it's taken them so long to do it.

"Look how many young people have died last year.

"Why couldn't you have taken a stand then, why do you have to wait for things to get so bad before you start doing something?"

For Martin Dinnegan's parents, official concern has come too late.

His father, Jim said: "We went to Downing Street a year ago and protested about these knives.

"There were three deaths after Martin and 16 this year. That's 19 since my son's."