FELLOW pupils of a schoolboy who was murdered have created a DVD to raise awareness about knife crime among other youngsters.
The film has been created by teenagers at Inverclyde Academy, where pupil Christopher Knox, 17, died after he was stabbed in June 2011.
Produced with BBC Scotland's Learn at BBC (LAB) unit, it is aimed at first and second-year pupils in Scotland. The film involves a love story and aims to show the impact of knife crime on two lives. Ex-Inverclyde Academy headteacher Catherine Sorensen, who retired in April, said making the DVD helped pupils ensure something positive came out of the tragedy of Christopher's death. She said: "Three years ago we suffered quite a tragedy when we lost one of our pupils in an event that occurred outside of school, but nonetheless the effect on the school community was cataclysmic, and one of the things that the pupils then and now have done is try to make a positive out of a negative, try to take something good from what was an appalling series of events.
"About a year ago I met with staff from the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, and also from the BBC, and we had a chat about producing some kind of resource that teachers could use in the classroom to support the whole No Knives Better Lives campaign to keep it live and, above all, to try and make it a peer campaign because the point about the DVD is that this has been done by young people for other young people. Any study that you can see anywhere will tell you that peer education is the most powerful tool we have in affecting attitudes and behaviour amongst young people.
"Obviously our group of 20 14-year-olds can't go out and talk to the whole of Scotland, but through using this particular production and having it posted on the BBC website, where it is available for free, for any teacher and indeed any parent to use, that's allowing them to talk and give a thought-provoking message to people their age or slightly younger."
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