'Children are still at risk in a place where they should be safe'
When is this going to stop?
Some stories leave you angry and today’s front page is one of them.
I can still remember the day when we heard the news that a Sheffield teenager had gone to school but never returned home - because a fellow pupil had taken a blade to school and stabbed him to death between lessons.
As a journalist it was one ‘I will never forget the day’ moments, but as a parent it was one which made me feel sick to the pit of my stomach. And it still does.
How do you ever get over losing your child in such unthinkable circumstances?
How do Caroline and Mark Willgoose even get through each day without their beloved son, Harvey, who was just 15 when he was so needlessly killed?
I spoke to Caroline yesterday and my colleagues have interviewed her numerous times since that fateful day.
They keep going because they are determined that Harvey’s memory will live on and they want his legacy to be safer schools.
They are campaigning for knife arches to be installed and today’s front page shows just how important their mission is.
In the same school where Harvey was killed with a hunting knife, a 14-year-old boy was found with a blade when his bag was searched last week.
My jaw nearly hit the floor when I heard that. My blood boiled.
It was nearly a year to the day that Harvey’s killer was locked up for a minimum of 15 years and it appears as though nothing has changed.
Knives were getting into school on the day Harvey was killed and they are obviously still getting in. Why? And How?
All Saints Catholic High School needs to explain why knife arches have not yet been installed.
Parents with children there need to know they are safe.
Caroline was so disappointed when I called her yesterday to tell her about the discovery of the knife. She was also angry.
And as traumatic as it would be for her to revisit the school where Harvey was killed, she want to return to speak to the children there.
She wants to explain how many lives were destroyed on the day Harvey died and how this needs to stop.
She wants schools, including All Saints, to take action.
I’ve seen Caroline campaigning religiously to raise this issue on the national stage and I share her anger that children are still at risk in a place where they should be safe.