Harvey Willgoose, 15, from Sheffield, died in a stabbing in between classes and now his mum Caroline is calling for walkthrough metal detectors to be put in place immediately at all schools
The grieving mum of stabbed teenager Harvey Wilgoose has issued an “urgent” appeal for knife arches to be introduced into every school immediately.
Caroline Willgoose spoke out on Facebook posting a video message on Sunday. It is almost a week after her 15-year-old son Harvey was allegedly murdered in school last Monday around midday between lessons.
HIs mum is now demanding action to stop any other child suffering the same fate. It is believed she is referring to having a walkthrough metal detectors which use pulse induction technology to detect metal objects.
Caroline said: “I just want to thank everyone for everything they have done and one thing that I wanted to say is I just wanted to thank everyone for all the support. It has just been amazing at getting us through this. I just can’t get my head round it anyway.
“Just one thing, people are saying ‘is there anything I can do? Is there anything I can do?’ The one thing that I want out of this. I am going to do loads of things in Harvey’s name obviously but the one thing I am urgently saying, is I want knife arches in every single school from tomorrow, from as soon as we can. I know it’s not nice.
“I know it’s unpleasant, I know it will take time but nobody, nobody should have this, should be dealing with this. I don’t want another child to be where Harvey is. The number one thing, the main thing for me is knife arches in every school and get behind us on this and thank you to everybody for the support…let’s fight for Harvey!
“The one place where children should be safe and feel safe is school so knife arches in every school and that’s the urgent thing that I want happening. Thanks.” At the weekend thousands of people turned out to honour Harvey’s memory by taking part in a march from Sheffield town hall to Bramall Lane, the home of his favourite football team.
The teenager spent many weekends at the ground supporting his beloved Sheffield United. Harvey’s parents both addressed the crowd before leading the march under the banner ‘Lives not Knives’.
Dad Mark said: “I’d just like to thank everyone, the messages we’ve received since Monday have been so comforting to us, we can’t believe how much love. It’s terrible what’s happened to Harvey but what we’ve got from you guys is keeping us together to be honest with you, it’s amazing.”
Commenting on the mass service held earlier at St Joseph’s Catholic Church in Handsworth she said: “I really needed that service, there was silence and time to gather our thoughts, everyone was together. We are a close family, we’re a big family as well, but our Harvey’s friends were his family. I want Harvey to be remembered for the person he was, he was special and I think that’s coming across to people, how special he were.”
Last week Harvey’s parents were in Sheffield Crown Court to hear a 15-year-old boy given a provisional trial date for the end of June and July. He is accused of murder. The defendant, who is also 15 and cannot be named because of his age, appeared at Sheffield Crown Court on Thursday charged with murder, possession of a knife and affray.
