Nine year olds are being taught about bleed kits, why is this the world we live in?

Knife crime in Bristol has had a devastating impact on many people in the city and a number of different initiatives are underway to try and tackle the rise in crime. More bleeding kits are being installed in Bristol, drop-in bins are popping up around the city and children as young as nine are being taught how to use the bleeding kits.

Now 12,000 young children a year will be taught how to use bleeding kits to save someone’s life when they have a catastrophic bleed, and while it has its merits, how scary is it that this is the world we live in now? Children will be taught about knife crime as a whole and the consequences of knives, it’s amazing that this is happening now.

It seems crazy to me. Kids should be able to have fun and be free, they shouldn’t have to worry if someone is bleeding. They should be able to play and learn. This is not the time to put more and more pressure on children, the world is complex enough.

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When a child is nine years old, or in Year 5, they learn about sex education. Kids are learning to read at a more advanced level, starting to learn about science, or starting to get really invested in sports. We now live in a world where knife crime is part of the remit.

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I feel like kids, not just nine years old, but all ages, have enough on their plate to think about. New schools, exams, thinking about their future, learning basic skills like learning how to interact with each other or learning how to cook or wash, we should be protecting children, not exposing them to something that is incredibly traumatic and life-destroying. .

When I was nine years old, I went to primary school with my friends, we never had smartphones, and although I knew there were some dangers, I knew that as long as we stayed together, we would be fine.

It’s so mentally draining to think about how things have changed so quickly so quickly. It’s not that there’s danger, because there always has been, but it’s that fear that’s happening on our doorsteps across the city, and I feel like for kids today, they’re going to end up losing their childhood and innocence because of knife crime.

The saddest thing about all of this is that teaching kids about bleed kits may end up helping prevent the loss of more lives. It is a genuine tragedy that children will end up normalizing around knives.

More needs to be done to stop knife crime taking over our lives. The ‘Together for Change’ campaign we launched, for example, saw so many ways in which knife crime affected not just a victim’s family, but the whole city.

So much work goes on behind the scenes to be able to make a difference, whether it’s the Knife Angel touring the country, shopkeepers being tested for selling knives to 13-year-olds or those pushing for tougher sentences for those caught carrying knives. .

But the whole idea of ​​training kids with bleeding kits, for whatever good it might do, I feel like we’ve failed our only duty to protect kids for the future. Hopefully, one day, the lesson we teach those kids is a lesson for the rest of us about the real impact of knife crime.

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