“I’ve got two registers in my head, one for the living and one for the dead”.
These are the words from a line of a poem written by a London school teacher who frequently sees his pupils affected by knife crime in some way.
Poet and teacher Christian Foley works across schools in London as a spoken word educator for children aged four to 18.
The 27-year-old, who lives in east London and has worked in London's schools for six years, told the Standard teachers are almost becoming “desensitised” to violence because it is happening so frequently across the city.
He said he has seen children bleeding in classrooms from stab wounds they have suffered the night before.
Mr Foley said: “I had a boy who turned up with his arm just gushing blood, he said he had fell on a knife the night before.”
The schoolboy had not shown anyone the wound until arriving to school, where he felt it safe, Mr Foley added.
“They [students] have not shown anyone their wounds and they haven’t told anyone, so teachers are having to change their wounds when they arrive to school.
“We’re their one safe space in their lives, school is the one thing that’s constant”, he said.
As well as students coming to school after being attacked, Mr Foley said he has encountered pupils being knifed on GCSE Results Day and on school grounds.
He said: “At one school I worked in, we had to have security guards for a long time because a gang tried to break in to our school and they tried to kill a kid in school.”
The boy, Mr Foley added, was 14 at the time of the attack and had been targeted when he was alone, away from staff.
Part of Mr Foley’s work includes encouraging youngsters to open up and speak about their emotions.
As a spoken word educator, Mr Foley has taught and helped children to write poetry, or music, about their experiences which has led to the creation of a number of student-written anthologies of work.
A London student's poem
I come from
I come from seeing tears shed
I come from people being misled
I come from people thinking that
Because I can articulate myself
And have a formal debate
That I didn't come from
Seeing issues resolved by fists
Getting thrown on the estate.
But I come from a good upbringing
I still had a mother and a father
I come from dumb arguments with mates
But we can make up after
I come from disaster
I come from being a hazard
I come from being expected to be a hero
I come from being expected to carry
The courage of a bear. Polar.
I come from being expected to never blow
My composure
Be a soldier
But it's not just because I'm starting to get older
That my back is starting to arch
The persistent weight of the world
On my shoulder
I come from putting dedication
Over procrastination
Trying to be the richest in my generation
Starting conversations and encouraging a dialogue with young people, Mr Foley said, was key.
He added: “Particularly with boys, they don’t speak about their emotions much. I can help them express themselves but they really struggle talking.
“We are having children coming into school with PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) and many face issues.
During one session, Mr Foley said a child told him he was a “civilian”, implying he was safe away from knife-related violence.
“I said to them ‘Does that mean you’re soldiers then?’
"And they said no, then you could kind of see their faces working it out and thinking about it.”
Last year, London’s murder rate was the highest in a calendar year for a decade, with many of the deaths being knife-related.
In 2018, 72 deaths involved a knife and 13 included a gun. Just over a third of victims, 44, were aged 16 to 24, of whom 10 were shot, 32 were stabbed and one was killed in an attack involving a knife and gun.
And 25 of the victims were 19 and under, six of whom were shot and 16 of whom were stabbed.
Mr Foley said there were a number of factors which led to knife crime, but said: “There’s one factor that unites them all and that’s poverty, it’s as simple as that.
“There’s a direct correlation and the more deprived an area is, the more problems it has.
A London student's poem
War in my Heart
I told my mumma don't cry
I'm only grinding till I die
Because I want to see you live
Before you die
No one ever gets rich from a 9 to 5
When she asks how I am
I say don't worry, I'm fine
But there's a war in my heart
And a fire in my eyes
“Social media is a massive problem, but the people trying to police social media don’t use it as much as people who are young.”
Mr Foley said education and starting conversations with young people was the most important thing, looking forward but admits “more needs to be done”.
“We’re forgetting that they are just children and they want to feel safe,” he said.
