Students urged to 'stop, think and walk away'

RIPON Grammar School Year 7 students learned about the potentially catastrophic consequences of ‘one punch’ attacks.

North Yorkshire Police school liaison officers are delivering assemblies to students throughout the county, urging them to ‘stop, think and walk away’.

The visits are part of the force’s Punched Out Cold campaign, backed by the One Punch UK charity.

The aim is to help prevent tragic deaths and life-changing injuries resulting from momentary acts of violence, with education and awareness seen as key factors in positively changing behaviour long term.

Officers highlight tragic one punch case studies and discuss various scenarios with students.

School liaison officer Martin Powell said: it was important to raise awareness about what can happen in a 'one punch' situation "We reiterate it is very rare that something like this happens but we just want to raise the awareness about what can happen when things go wrong."

He said that, as students get older and grow stronger, they may not realise the impact their punch or push could have on somebody: "It's just to make them aware that as you get older you are getting stronger but you need to be responsible for your behaviour and make sure that things don't get out of hand."

"Pupils are often not aware of the impact that one punch can have so for me, that's really important that we can raise that awareness about managing your behaviour both in school and out of school. It's important to capture that from a young age, from Year 7s, and deliver it right. up to Year 13. The feedback we get from teachers, from pupils, from parents is really positive."

The work follows a wider campaign by North Yorkshire police to raise awareness of one punch attacks in bars, pubs and clubs.