5pm teen mugging on Balham High Road Post Reply

[dimelda]

Hello, Goldhawk.  I'm heartened to hear that.  I had thought that parents would fume if their little angels weren't allowed to carry phones on them 24/7 - possibly even legally challenge the ruling.  But, clearly, common sense prevailed (for a change).   But as Avocado says on this thread ... because Ashcroft Academy's ban on mobile phones is well known in the area, it's happily resulted in many fewer muggings, or none at all, on their students.  Graveney's Head therefore should proclaim it loud & wide, by whatever means, that the school's pupils do not carry phones on them.   As most attacks on schoolchildren these days are for their phones, not so much for money, it might well have a positive effect.  Of course, as you say, the muggers will still attack adults, particularly those foolish enough to be gabbing on their phones in public, but adults are generally in a better position to defend themselves.  These are, after all, children.

[ronangel]

There could be a simple answer to this two phones!
The expensive phone left at home and the cheap basic phone which has just phone calls and text no internet costing less than £20-£30 ( or even a second hand one) pay as you go number £5 top up, for traveling too and from school and even in school where allowed.carried in hand in full view where muggers could see it so they will get nothing for it if they take so wont bother! If it is taken contact service provider so blocked and not worth anything at all.
Another important but risky thing which could be done is to pull off masks straight away, if a lot of people around who will see what is going on and know muggers later  if they still take something.
The main problem is getting police to do something about it and prison type sentence for those caught no ifs no buts at least a month locked up if no one hurt no bail fast tracked!

[dimelda]

Ronangel:  If you're saying that muggers won't bother to attack school children carrying cheap, basic phones which, from what you say, aren't in demand, then that could be a solution.  But why on earth do they have to have phones on them AT ALL!   They don't.  And it won't work for schools like Graveney & Aschroft where the rules are 'no phones at all' - even tacky ones.  As for the police getting involved:  they won't.  There are probably hundreds of phone muggings every day in London &, with a police force both under-staffed & under-resourced, they simply don't have the time.  Unless people - adults & children alike - get off their phones in public, yearning for a world with fewer phone muggings is pie in the sky.

[avocado]

That’s because Graveney aren’t very good at enforcing the ban so students bring them in anyway. I’ve worked at both Graveney and Ashcroft and the difference is that Ashcroft will use a handheld metal detector if a student is suspected of having brought a phone in. They will then confiscate the phone and the student is not allowed it back until the end of term! Parents sign a contract agreeing to this, amongst other things, when their child starts the school. So, children at Ashcroft genuinely don’t bring them in. That’s why there has never been a case of one of their students being mugged.

[wandsworth womble]

But if you have installed tracking on your children's phones, then surely if these phones are taken, this would lead straight to the muggers? So perhaps a good idea for the kids to carry their mobiles, no?

[dimelda]

Avocado:  Wow!  Aschroft Academy are clearly dead serious on this issue.  Sure it's not a boot camp?  Just joking.  Top marks to them.  More schools should operate the same policy.

[dimelda]

Wandsworth Womble:  Tracking a waste of time.  Do you seriously think the police - with hundreds of mobiles pinched weekly or even daily - will bother to track them down. They have far more important crimes to deal with than tracking down a nicked mobile.   The phones have probably been sold on by then anyway.