Teachers should ask police to search pupils' bags - minister

Teachers can call on police officers to search pupils' bags if they do not feel comfortable doing so themselves, Wales' education minister has said.

Lynne Neagle said there were lessons to be learned following the "terrible incident" at a Carmarthenshire school in which two teachers and a pupil were stabbed.

A teenager was found guilty of three counts of attempted murder, leading to calls for improved safety measures in schools, such as security guards.

Responding to calls for heightened security in schools, Neagle said this may not be an option school staff were comfortable with, adding she would be holding a "behaviour summit" to tackle the "complex" problems facing schools.

A union said it would not be a productive use of police time to conduct daily bag searches, and called for pupils carrying weapons to be automatically excluded.

"There's been a culture shift and what I'm seeing is a whole range of societal problems are now playing out in schools and schools are having to do things that they didn't have to before," the minister told Radio Wales Breakfast.

"I'm hearing a lot from schools about behavioural issues [and] we are seeing more and more young people with complex mental health issues.

"One of the things we are doing as a government is I'm bringing together all partners in Wales later this year - as soon as we can - to have a behaviour summit where we're going to look at these issues… I want that to be really action focussed, so we come out with an action plan."

Following the verdict, Fiona Elias - one of the teachers who was attacked at Ysgol Dyffryn Aman in April 2024 - said she wanted to meet the local authority and Welsh government to make sure no one else went through "the nightmare I have endured".

Neagle said: "I've already met with Fiona Elias, I've also visited the school on two occasions. I've been really clear that I want to do everything that I can to support the school who've been through this terrible time, but it is also obviously important that we learn lessons now from what happened.

"Now that the trial is over, we need to understand what happened on the run-up to this case and we are talking with the local authority about how we best learn the lesson from that."

During the trial, it was revealed that the teenager responsible for the attack regularly took a knife to school, until her father began checking her bag each morning.

Cefin Campbell MS, whose brother works at the school and tried to restrain the girl, previously said employing security guards to assist with bag checks could be an option for schools to consider.

"I don't think the onus should have been put on the father to check the bag every day," he said.

Responding to the suggestion, Neagle said: "I'm not sure lots of teachers would be comfortable with security guards in schools. And if they don't want to [check pupils' bags] they can ask the police to do that, the guidance is very clear on that."

She added "really strong guidance on the carrying of knives" was already in place in Wales, with schools permitted to search pupils for offensive weapons or permanently exclude pupils if they have a knife in school.

"It is an exceptional thing to be carrying a knife in school and these incidents are, thankfully, very rare," she said.

"I want teachers to have the tools that they need to be able to deal with these issues in schools, but it can't all be on teachers."

The latest guidance on searching for weapons in schools was produced in 2013, almost 12 years ago.

It strongly advises schools "not to search pupils where resistance is expected, but rather to call the police".

Neil Butler, the national officer of the NASUWT, said the recent spate of knife attacks in schools "must be a call to action for the Welsh government".

The guidance from 2013 "needs updating", he said, adding: "Teachers are worried about what they have the power to do when they are faced with violence in schools."

A bag search can endanger a teacher's safety, he said, and can only search pupils when authorised by a school head. "This could all mean it needs to be done by a security professional," he said, adding schools do not have funds to employ them.

"Whilst schools will always involve the police where necessary, a daily bag search is arguably not a productive use of police time," he said.

Butler called for "stronger deterrence", calling for carrying a weapon to "result in automatic exclusion".

"After all, it is a criminal offence and should be dealt with robustly," he said.