Ten-year-old boy stabs teacher in the chest with a pencil

Blackpool: A boy of ten who stabbed one teacher in the chest with a pencil and attacked two others has been let off with a warning.

The teacher needed hospital treatment for a puncture wound after the boy, who cannot be named, attacked him at a primary school last term.

After lashing out and kicking a woman member of staff on the leg, the male teacher stepped in and tried to calm the youngster down but was stabbed. The boy, who escaped prosecution and was given a formal warning by police, had previously been reprimanded for another kicking attack on a second female teacher.

Last night union leaders condemned the decision. John Girdley, of the NASUWT, said: "When pupils attack teachers — and this does happen — we consider this totally unacceptable.

"Teachers are there to teach, they are not social workers and not police officers. The school should take very robust action indeed against a pupil, particularly one who repeats an assault."

The incident happened shortly before the Christmas break when the male teacher tried to persuade the boy to go into the school's quiet room pupils who get unruly and need time to cool down.

But the boy refused and grabbed a sharpened pencil from the teacher's pocket and plunged it into his chest.

The 38 year old managed to pull out the pencil himself as colleagues dialled 999. Paramedics took the teacher, who was bleeding, to Blackpool Victoria Hospital, where he received emergency treatment. Police were called to the school and took the boy — described as being of very slight build — into custody.

At the time, a police spokesman said: "The teacher was very lucky, another inch and the sharp pencil could have punctured one of his main arteries."

But yesterday the boy, who lives with his family in Layton, Blackpool, accepted a warning over his behaviour from police officers after a review of the case was carried out.

Girdley said: "This is made all the more serious when a weapon is used, however primitive the weapon may seem. If one of our members came to us and said they wanted nothing more to do with this child we would support them."