What happened to Jake Bird? Cliftonville Primary School student, 8, left "shaken" by another pupil holding knife to his throat

Jake Bird, an eight-year-old boy at the Cliftonville Primary School in Margate, Kent, was in the school lunch hall, when another student came to him, allegedly grabbed his head, and pressed a knife to his throat. According to the Daily Mail, despite the attack being unprovoked, the other pupil was let off “with a slap on the wrist.”

The attack was intervened by a dinner lady at the lunch hall, Daily Mail reported, leaving Jake “shaken”.

The knife had also left behind a mark on Jake Bird’s neck. Jake's father told Kent Online:

"Children need education about knives at an earlier age, especially as knife crime is getting worse and worse. This could be happening to our children at younger ages.”

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Jake Bird had a cutlery knife pressed into his throat while eating lunch at school

Talking about his son to KentOnline, Jake Bird's father described his son as “usually happy-go-lucky, very charismatic.” The father-of-one also shared that his son, who is autistic, expressed himself through gestures.

While eating lunch in his school’s lunch hall, Jake Bird was keeping to himself, when the other student – whose name remains unrevealed at the moment – allegedly approached him with a cutlery knife. The boy then grabbed Jake’s head with one hand and reportedly used the other to point the knife at him, trying to push it deeper.

As the dinner lady working at the lunch hall took notice of the ongoing incident, she intervened to disarm the boy.

When Jake’s mother came to collect her son from the school, she found him “shaken,” as per the eight-year-old's father, who told Kent Online:

"Jake’s mum picked him up at school after the incident and that evening he was shaken."

The child's father also told Kent Online how the only way Jake Bird could describe it was by pointing to his throat and saying: “I was scared.”

According to Mr Bird’s statement, his family has not received an apology from the boy who initiated the attack or his parents, at the moment.

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According to Daily Mail, the Cliftonville Primary School has been rated as “outstanding” by Ofstead. Claire Whichcord, the headmaster of the school, told KentOnline that she had delivered the “most serious consequence” she could. Ms Whichcord further stated:

“The incident was a lunchtime incident that occurred in the school lunch hall, involving school cutlery while the children were eating. The matter was thoroughly investigated and appropriate follow-up actions were taken.”

Whichcord’s statement wasn’t satisfactory to Mr Bird, who called it “abhorrent,” stating he believed that the boy should have been suspended.

Inspector Jim Woodward shared with Kent Online that such incidents in school are “extremely rare.”