00:00In a school hall in Medway, students are stepping into a different reality,
00:05one that's designed to help them make safer choices in the real world.
00:08Using virtual reality headsets, students experienced a scenario
00:13that explored the serious consequences of carrying a knife.
00:16And this is a bit of what they saw.
00:19Yo, this is getting out of hand.
00:22And now they know I'm carrying, they expect me to use it.
00:26What am I going to do?
00:30The education that the kids have had today, really interactive, really powerful,
00:34is really important because it teaches you that if you carry a knife,
00:36you're actually going to be less safe.
00:38And look, we have a long way to go.
00:40Knife crime has been on the rise for a long time.
00:42It's now going in the right direction.
00:44But there are lots of different interventions that we have to get right.
00:48We have to do the policing.
00:49We have to catch the perpetrators.
00:51We have to put them away.
00:52We have to make sure they're getting the justice that the victims deserve.
00:55But we also have to think about how do we prevent these things
00:58from happening in the first place?
01:00How do we support the people living in areas where there is violence?
01:04But for Martin Cosser, who lost his son to knife violence in 2023,
01:09the government could be doing more.
01:11So a lot of the stuff they're doing at the moment
01:12are targeting areas with higher rates of knife crime,
01:15which I understand.
01:16But I think what we've got to do is look at the bigger picture
01:18and look at areas that aren't struggling as much at the moment
01:21and get in there and attack it before it becomes a problem.
01:25You know, let's not be reactive.
01:27Let's be proactive.
01:28So I know that's going to cost more money.
01:29But when life's being lost, surely that's a sensible investment.
01:33The table discussion gave students the opportunity
01:35to voice their concerns over knife safety,
01:37especially after taking part in the VR activity
01:40and chatting to the minister and Martin about Charlie's promise.
01:43But what kind of things have these students been witnessing?
01:46Well, it all started when my friend was being bullied in school.
01:50So I heard about it.
01:51I didn't go out there and start on him.
01:53I asked him politely, can you please stop bullying my friend?
01:55It's making him really, like, it's making him depressed.
01:58He's been bullying him for months.
01:59And he was like, oh, why are you coming over?
02:01He's starting from me.
02:01What, do you want some yet?
02:02And I was like, no, I've just asked you to stop bullying my friend.
02:06And they were like, all right, come meet you after school then.
02:08I was like, OK, that's fine.
02:10So I met him after school, had a fight with him.
02:14After the fight was finished,
02:15he got a pair of scissors out of his bag,
02:17grabbed them like this and started swinging for me.
02:20I've got the scar on my hand there and there
02:24from where he had actually swung at me.
02:28So what was going through my mind,
02:30I was thinking, like, all this over him,
02:34over me asking him to stop bullying my friend.
02:36And I was thinking, like, what if I die here today?
02:38Like, what if I don't see my family when I get back home?
02:40And have you witnessed anything yourself or experienced it?
02:43Yeah, right in front of me,
02:45two people with both backed out knives.
02:47And it was just...
02:49I called the police straight away
02:50and they came and both arrested them both.
02:52And not even long ago,
02:53some other guy was backed out, like,
02:56her knife about this long.
02:58It's really... it's not safe.
03:00With the government providing funding
03:02for schools in high-risk areas,
03:04will they finally cut down on knife crime?
03:06Naila Mahomet for KMTV in Raynham.
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