A Sheffield secondary school has responded after a video was shared showing young people fighting on the premises and a knife being wielded.
The disturbing 30-second clip, which was filmed yesterday (Wednesday), shows one student in a hooded top and with his face covered shouting the N-word by the gates of Sheffield Springs Academy, Arbourthorne, before running out.
A fracas ensues outside the gates and a teacher can be seen dashing out and trying to intervene. Panicked students begin running away and into the school grounds screaming “he’s got a knife”.
The video – an edited version of which you can view above – has been shared and viewed thousands of times.
In a letter to parents today (Thursday) a spokesperson for the school said: “Further to our text last night, I wanted to write again to reassure parents about the incident outside school last night.
“All our students are fine and I am very proud of how each of them dealt with the situation. I am also hugely grateful to staff who quickly intervened and called the police.
“To be clear, the perpetrators of the incident were not students at the school and the police are making very good progress with their investigation. They too have praised how our students responded to the incident.
“We will continue to monitor the situation and have a strong staff presence in the vicinity of the school at the end of the day.”
The woman whose son recorded the video pointed out that there is a knife amnesty bin near the school.
She also said that “no one was seriously hurt that we know of, thank God” and said that the teacher who intervened “deserves a medal”.
South Yorkshire Police have released an appeal and requested anyone with information or footage of the incident to get in touch.
A spokesperson said: “We were called by a member of staff at Sheffield Springs Academy on Hurlfield Road at about 3.15pm yesterday (Wednesday) to inform us that two men had entered their premises and had threatened pupils and a member of staff.
“Neither of the men, believed to be teenagers aged between 15 and 20 years old, were pupils at the school.
“One was said to be wearing a black coat with the hood up and the other was white with a red coat on and a snood around his face.
“The man in the black coat was carrying a knife.
“They had left the school premises by about 3.20pm.
Arrest
“We have since located one of the men, a 16 year-old from Sheffield, and he has been arrested on suspicion of affray – public order. He remains in custody at this time.”
South Yorkshire Police’s Chief Inspector for Neighbourhoods in Sheffield, Sarah Gilmour, said: “We are aware of footage of the alleged incident circulating on social media and are requesting to see it to help us build a complete picture of the alleged incident and what happened.
