Update: Barton Peveril lockdown incident

We wrote on Thursday, 9 March, about an incident that occurred at Barton Peveril College, Eastleigh, during that afternoon. We wanted to update further.

Various versions of events were being mentioned across social media, but we believed it important to stick to the official information being made available, and to focus on offering thoughts and support to those who were directly involved.

You may recall that police were alerted at around 2:20pm to reports of a person with a knife on the grounds. Staff at the college took swift action to keep students safe, and police, both armed and unarmed, were deployed.

Searches were carried out, but no knife was found. Further, whilst three students suffered minor injuries, none were knife related.

It’s understood that a group of five or six youths were responsible for the assault on the three students. Police believe they’d been seen in Grantham Park, Eastleigh, shortly before the incident at the college.

Investigations are ongoing into the incident, and again, we hope those who were there have been able to return to some kind of normality. Via social media yesterday, Friday 10 March, District Commander for Eastleigh, Chief Inspector Will Rollinson, said the following;

“I understand that this will have been a very stressful incident for the students of the college, and would like to thank them for their cooperation and help yesterday as we were trying to ensure everyone’s safety.

“I would also like to acknowledge the quick work of staff yesterday that enabled us to work quickly and conduct a thorough search for any weapons.

“This incident is an absolute priority for us. We are working hard to identify those involved and ensure students are safe. We will not tolerate violence or weapons in our community – especially within our educational settings.

“Officers will be onsite today conducting enquiries, so you may notice an increased presence of officers in the area. If you have any concerns, please feel free to approach us and talk to us. We want to hear from you.”

A statement from Rob Temple, the college Principal read as follows;

“We followed our lockdown procedures as we were warned there was an intruder carrying a weapon on the College site. We have since learnt that the intruders had already left the campus and that there is no evidence of a knife, or any weapon, being involved in the incident at the college yesterday.

“We are grateful to the ongoing support of the police in this matter and for the presence of Police Community Support Officers, who have been on site throughout the day to provide reassurance, listen to any concerns and to support our safeguarding expectations.”

Any information that could help with the ongoing enquiries into this, particularly anything that could identify the group in dark clothing seen at Grantham Park, should be passed to the police. This can be done by calling 101, submitting a report online, or by calling Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111. The reference to quote is 44230095510.