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Chris Abercrombie: PPTA President on the rising number of kids bringing weapons to school · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: So kids and weapons coming to classrooms. This is new
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: information from their official information at request. Harold's got its
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: hands on it. Five hundred and twenty six students have
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: been stood down, suspended or excluded for having a weapon
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: at school, an eighty percent increase on numbers recorded in
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: twenty eighteen. A third from Auckland, sixty from Hamilton. Chris Abercrombie,
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: the PPTA president, with me this morning.
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: Chris, Good morning, good morning.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: No definition of what a weapon is? What are we
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: talking about?
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: I mean, it could be anything from a knife or
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: cases like BB guns, those kinds of things there. But
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: you say, there's no definition for the ministry about what
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: a weapon is, so it's left that big school to decide.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: Are we talking, sirius like BB guns, knives? What guns?
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: So minustanding there's been no guns, but there's definitely been knives,
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: BB guns, those kind of things there. It could be
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: bringing a chain to school, you know, like a proper chain,
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: you know, so there's lots of things that could be
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: there's no definition of what a weapon.
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: Is, or knuckle dusters kids used to bring to school.
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: It could absolutely be those kinds of things.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so are we how are we finding them, Are
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: kids braindishing them or are people searching bags? Teach of
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: what's going on.
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: Most times, from our experience, what we've been told and
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: personal experiences other students tell us that so and so
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: has got a knife. You know, so and so bought
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: something that there tends to be the experience of most
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: people finding or a teacher sees it. But it's very
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: very rare that it's a bag surch or anything like that.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: Okay, we got five hre and twenty six students last year.
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: That's an eighty percent increase on five years prior. I
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: mean we will have had population increases. Well, kids aren't
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: exactly getting stabbed at school or shot at school? Is
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: this Do the numbers sound more alarming than they, you know,
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: than the reality.
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: I mean, it is a concern. It is a real
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: concern because you never know what's going to happen. So
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: people aren't getting sad. You know, it's very rare. Wolf
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: shot and it is incredibly rare. But it is a
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: concern of these things are happening, you know, and it's
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: definitely an increasing trend. We hear this from teachers and
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: principles all the time.
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: Chris Great Tavy on the show is always Chris Abercrombie,
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: the PPTA President, on kids bringing weapons to school. When
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: I was at school there, it was knuckle dusters, was
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: a kind of trendy thing, and never saw a kid
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: with a gun. You'll be pleased to know. But then
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: I don't think any student in New Zealand would have
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: seen a kid bring a gun to school. Would they
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: maybe a pocket knife? But I don't know. To me,
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: I mean, it sounds alarming, doesn't it. It sounds alarming, But
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: I just don't know that it necessarily means that kids
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: are in any greater danger than they were yesterday.
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live
• 2:42
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• 2:45
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