ONE in five 15-year-old boys carries a weapon or some form of protection on him. The figures are contained in the release of the first Guernsey young people’s survey in five years.
Chief Minister Mike Torode said the numbers should be a concern for parents of island teenagers.
‘There were some interesting results in the survey and a lot of it didn’t come as a surprise, but for one area there is concern with 22% of 15-year-old boys apparently carrying weapons,’ he said.
‘I find it very difficult to believe and the suggestion that this is the case only sometimes is actually even worse, because it implies that they’re tooling up - to use the jargon - when going out, and that I find very dangerous.
‘If that statistic is true then parents need to be asking themselves whether their son is carrying a dangerous weapon.
‘Have we learnt nothing from the death by stabbing of a young man in the street just a little over a year ago?’ he said.
The survey, which 2,000 pupils aged 11 to 17 filled in, asked Year 8 and 10 pupils whether they carry a weapon or some form of protection when going out.
When the same question was asked to the same age group in the UK, over a third said they carried a weapon or other item for protection.
Deputy Torode met with Year 7 students from Les Beaucamps to hear their concerns and what they might do if they were chief minister.
‘They show a very responsible attitude when talking about the environment and feel very concerned about fly-tipping and the need to recycle.
‘Some of them are concerned about bullying, primarily in schools, but I am pleased to see that this school operates a mentor scheme to help the younger pupils and they are prepared to discuss matters with teachers and parents.’
Emma Drewitt, 11, said she thought the government could do more to stop bullying in school and was glad that Les Beaucamps had a mentor scheme.
‘People can get very upset sometimes and might even contemplate killing themselves,’ she said.
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