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Speaker 1: So kids and weapons coming to classrooms. This is new

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Speaker 1: information from their official information at request. Harold's got its

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Speaker 1: hands on it. Five hundred and twenty six students have

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Speaker 1: been stood down, suspended or excluded for having a weapon

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Speaker 1: at school, an eighty percent increase on numbers recorded in

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Speaker 1: twenty eighteen. A third from Auckland, sixty from Hamilton. Chris Abercrombie,

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Speaker 1: the PPTA president, with me this morning.

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Speaker 2: Chris, Good morning, good morning.

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Speaker 1: No definition of what a weapon is? What are we

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Speaker 1: talking about?

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Speaker 2: I mean, it could be anything from a knife or

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Speaker 2: cases like BB guns, those kinds of things there. But

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Speaker 2: you say, there's no definition for the ministry about what

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Speaker 2: a weapon is, so it's left that big school to decide.

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Speaker 1: Are we talking, sirius like BB guns, knives? What guns?

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Speaker 2: So minustanding there's been no guns, but there's definitely been knives,

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Speaker 2: BB guns, those kind of things there. It could be

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Speaker 2: bringing a chain to school, you know, like a proper chain,

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Speaker 2: you know, so there's lots of things that could be

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Speaker 2: there's no definition of what a weapon.

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Speaker 1: Is, or knuckle dusters kids used to bring to school.

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Speaker 2: It could absolutely be those kinds of things.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, so are we how are we finding them, Are

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Speaker 1: kids braindishing them or are people searching bags? Teach of

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Speaker 1: what's going on.

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Speaker 2: Most times, from our experience, what we've been told and

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Speaker 2: personal experiences other students tell us that so and so

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Speaker 2: has got a knife. You know, so and so bought

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Speaker 2: something that there tends to be the experience of most

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Speaker 2: people finding or a teacher sees it. But it's very

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Speaker 2: very rare that it's a bag surch or anything like that.

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Speaker 1: Okay, we got five hre and twenty six students last year.

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Speaker 1: That's an eighty percent increase on five years prior. I

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Speaker 1: mean we will have had population increases. Well, kids aren't

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Speaker 1: exactly getting stabbed at school or shot at school? Is

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Speaker 1: this Do the numbers sound more alarming than they, you know,

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Speaker 1: than the reality.

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Speaker 2: I mean, it is a concern. It is a real

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Speaker 2: concern because you never know what's going to happen. So

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Speaker 2: people aren't getting sad. You know, it's very rare. Wolf

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Speaker 2: shot and it is incredibly rare. But it is a

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Speaker 2: concern of these things are happening, you know, and it's

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Speaker 2: definitely an increasing trend. We hear this from teachers and

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Speaker 2: principles all the time.

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Speaker 1: Chris Great Tavy on the show is always Chris Abercrombie,

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Speaker 1: the PPTA President, on kids bringing weapons to school. When

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Speaker 1: I was at school there, it was knuckle dusters, was

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Speaker 1: a kind of trendy thing, and never saw a kid

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Speaker 1: with a gun. You'll be pleased to know. But then

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Speaker 1: I don't think any student in New Zealand would have

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Speaker 1: seen a kid bring a gun to school. Would they

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Speaker 1: maybe a pocket knife? But I don't know. To me,

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Speaker 1: I mean, it sounds alarming, doesn't it. It sounds alarming, But

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Speaker 1: I just don't know that it necessarily means that kids

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Speaker 1: are in any greater danger than they were yesterday.

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Speaker 2: For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live

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