A 14-year-old girl at a Suffolk school was left bleeding and could be scarred for life after receiving a stab wound in the leg from a makeshift blade through another student’s bag.
Year 9 student Shania Bennison suffered the injury at East Bergholt High School on February 13 when another pupil was pushed into her as she was standing in a corridor.
The student had the blade in their bag which then punctured it, pierced Shania's skirt and left her with an inch-deep wound in her upper thigh.
Shania's mother, Kirsty Chapman, said she understood the knife to have been a scalpel blade tied to a pencil with an elastic band.
Ms Chapman, 35, said: "She told me she felt a sharp pain in her leg, almost in her groin, and looked down and saw the blood on her."
"She took herself to the bathroom to make sure she was okay and found that she had been stabbed.
"It is shocking to see children where we live are carrying knives. It's like one of those headlines you read about affecting big cities, but not here."
Ms Chapman said Shania was told by nurses the wound would leave a scar, but it did not require hospital treatment.
She also criticised the school for not contacting her to say her daughter had been injured, only finding out when she picked up Shania at the usual home time around 3.45pm.
"I couldn't believe this wasn't being taken more seriously," Ms Chapman said. "No-one had bothered to call me and it had happened more than an hour ago."
Suffolk police said the incident was reported to them and enquiries were ongoing.
Dan Woodcock, East Bergholt High School headteacher, said he could not discuss individual cases but added: "Keeping our students safe is our highest priority. We always act swiftly, we follow behavioural procedures and use any appropriate sanctions we have available."
Ms Chapman added: "My daughter is quite confident in herself, she's back at school and she's doing okay. But what if this had been a shorter student, what if they had been stabbed in the stomach? This could have been even more worse."
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