Councillor Betsan Jones said her friend’s granddaughter was ‘traumatised’ following yesterday’s stabbing at Amman Valley School and ‘couldn’t stop crying’ when she got home
A pupil from Amman Valley School “couldn’t stop crying” when she returned home following yesterday’s stabbing which saw the building placed into lockdown, a county councillor has said.
The girl was “traumatised” after the incident on a playground which left the “close-knit” community shocked, said Betsan Jones, who knows the child’s grandmother. The councillor said her friend told her that her granddaughter was okay while in school but broke down when she got home.
During an interview with BBC Radio Wales, Ms Jones said: “I spoke to a friend who had a granddaughter in the school. She was traumatised when she got home. She was OK in school, but couldn’t stop crying when she got home.”
The councillor added parents are “so grateful” about the way the school acted, saying that the stabbing left the community in shock. Ms Jones said: “I went outside and I could see the air ambulance going over. I could see them landing where I knew the school is. Then my phone started ringing and I couldn’t believe the news I was hearing. The catchment of the school is huge.
“All these communities are close-knit. It is a very friendly school, it is such a shock. No one would have thought it would happen in our town, our valley. Parents are so grateful in the way that the school acted.” Meanwhile, the brother of teacher Darrel Campbell said he restrained a teenage girl in an armlock after two other staff members and a pupil were stabbed by a student.
Today, the police confirmed two teachers and a youngster injured in a stabbing incident at a school yesterday have been released from hospital. A teenage girl has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and remains in custody, Dyfed-Powys Police said. Mr Campbell has worked at the school for 40 years, according to his brother, Cefin, a Plaid Cymru politician.
The Senedd member for Mid and West Wales, who is a former student, told BBC Radio Wales his brother intervened in the incident, which happened at the end of the morning break. “He’s been a teacher there for 40 years and he was involved in the incident yesterday in the sense that he was the first at the scene and he obviously had to deal with a very distressing and chaotic situation,” Mr Campbell said.
“He probably did what most people would have done in the same situation, try to calm things and restrain people from making the situation worse. Obviously he’s been shaken by the whole experience as have all the staff, pupils, parents and so on. But I think it’s the sense of shock because he’s been there for 40 years as teacher, he’s never ever seen anything like this. I think that hits home to people that it should happen in a place like this.”
The south-west Wales school went into lockdown after a “code red” alarm sounded through the PA system, during which students and staff are said to have hidden in classrooms – with one pupil reportedly vaulting the school fence to get to safety. The lockdown lasted around four hours between 11.20am and 3.20pm, resulting in a lengthy and anxious wait for parents who were seen tearfully hugging their children after they walked through the gates.
