POLICE are now teaching children as young as 13 how to treat stab and gunshot wounds in a ‘sad state of affairs’ for the capital.
City of London Police posted on X, formerly Twitter, revealing that officers have been teaching year 9 students at City of London Academy “how to treat stab wounds and stop a bleed”.
X/ @CityPolicePolice teaching students at the City of London Academy[/caption]
They wrote: “The students were shown potentially lifesaving skills and how to provide emergency treatment to someone suffering from a stab wound or ballistic injury.”
Officers posted a picture of the presentation being given to pupils, with a slide titled ‘Exposure and Evacuation’ showing a picture of a frozen Jack Nicholson portraying the villain of the 1980 film The Shining.
Conservative London Mayor candidate Susan Hall told The Sun: “We shouldn’t have to teach 13- and 14-year-olds how to treat stab wounds, but that is the sad reality of Sadiq Khan’s London where knife crime is up 54%.
“I am listening to Londoners, which is why I will put knife arches in every school that wants one and provide all frontline officers with knife detection wands, so we can get knives off our streets.”
The City of London Police social media post has drawn more than 80 replies, many of them praising officers, but nonetheless critical of the situation the capital finds itself in.
One X user wrote: “It’s a sad state of affairs when plod have to teach children how to treat knife and gunshot wounds.”
Another said: “Maybe teach the officers how to prevent stabbings.”
A third wrote: “Why not just stop the knife attacks in the first place? Just an idea.”
One commented: “Is this not down to poor policing?”
London Mayor Sadiq Khan was tagged in one comment by a user who wrote: “We shouldn’t have to teach children this.”
Another X user wrote: “That’s not really something to be proud of, this city is in shambles.”
City of London Police also posted the news on Facebook, with one user, Paul Lovell, replying: “Yes its a shame, but useful, and this should become mandatory training in schools and colleges as most students carry a tourniquet ie ties and belts.”
Another user, Helen Eldridge, wrote: “Sad it needs to be done… Well done for delivering.”
It comes following a number of high-profile London stabbings, including that of 15-year-old Elianne Andam.
Elianne died after being repeatedly stabbed while she was walking to school in Croydon in September.
A 17-year-old boy has denied murder but admitted manslaughter. A trial is set to take place from November 25 at the Old Bailey.
In late March, Iranian TV journalist Pouria Zeraati was stabbed outside his Wimbledon home, sparking an investigation.
Police said the motivation for the attack was not yet clear, but his occupation, along with recent threats towards British-based Iranian journalists, meant the probe was being led by specialist counter-terrorism officers.
Regarding the recent City of London Police images of officers teaching children about stab wounds, Chief Inspector Rob Bell said: “Following the Borough Market terrorist attack in 2017, we train all of our frontline officers on pre-hospital trauma care, which includes how to deal with major bleeds.
“We know the value of this training and why it is vital for our highly-skilled officers to share this knowledge with young people.
“From our experience of dealing with terrorist attacks, we know that members of the public may be asked by first responders to deliver life-saving interventions.
“People who have these skills can greatly help in those vital early minutes.
“Going into schools and speaking to teenagers about pre-hospital trauma care not only imparts life-saving first aid skills, but also highlights the dangers of knife crime and of carrying offensive weapons and it allows us to engage positively with young people.
“We’re proud to be a police force at the forefront of making a positive difference and helping reduce violent crime.”
The City of London Police scheme to teach life-saving skills to teenagers comes five years after a similar initiative by the same force.
In 2019, a total of 320 life-saving bleed control kits were given to London bars and pubs to help stab victims.
“We want to be as prepared as possible to deal with knife crime injuries,” the force’s Assistant Commissioner, Alistair Sutherland, said at the time.
Sadiq Khan’s office declined to comment.
twitter/@CityPoliceOfficers have been teaching year 9 students how to treat stab wounds[/caption] Published: [#item_custom_pubDate]
