Reported by sons school to SS and Prevent

[luke303]

Hi Everyone, 

 

We are reasonably new to airsoft although I have quite a bit of experience using BB guns and paintball. 

My son is 10 and has a real keen interest in military and history. From this he's gained an interest in Airsoft and asked me if he can get involved in it. He has ADHD and we've found it really hard to get him involved in clubs or sport as he's very shy and struggles to socialise. Furthermore we've been told by professionals to embrace his interests/hobbies however unique.

 

We read up all about the law and ages etc and discovered that he's probably too young to join a club but on private land or at a range he could have a go. So we bought an Airsoft gun and we took him to a shooting range, checking with the shop before we arrived. We've also let him have a go in our garden with adult supervision obviously.

 

Fast forward 2 months and the school has reported us to social services and my son to Prevent the anti terror initiative. Citing safeguarding concerns.

 

Their reasons given that its because he has an interest in history, war, politics etc and now he's mentioned this shooting range trip to his friend. They feel he is being radicalised by us and at risk of extremism because of his interests.

 

Has anyone got any experience of schools having an issue with Airsoft as a hobby. What's people's general thoughts...have we done something wrong? 

[Colin Allen]

One small part of my role is as the safeguarding officer for my organisation; I regularly receive referrals concerning individuals about whom concerns have been raised.  I am surprised that this has gone straight to Prevent without an initial lower level intervention, unless they have other concerns.
 

Based on what you have written, the school appear to have over reacted.  Make an appointment with the Head and calmly explain the situation to them, showing them that shooting with toy guns in a safe and controlled environment is perfectly legitimate and that you are following professional advice by indulging his equally legitimate interests in history, war and politics while keeping a careful eye on what he is accessing and on his views.  Whatever you do, do not show anger or frustration with them.

Edited Saturday at 08:46 by Colin Allen

[Tommikka]

Shooting on a range will be fine

At 10 he won’t be able to play at standard sites, but there could be local sites that have junior play, perhaps with laser for min impact etc.  Or they may be happy for visits on their range

 

 

 

Shooting in your garden may or may not be fine

 

One risk of home shooting is being overlooked ‘with a gun’ and getting reported resulting with an armed response 

 

Another is disturbing neighbors and reported as antisocial (not illegal, but continued acts can result in ASBOs and the breach of an ASBO is an offence)

Talking to neighbours deals with that - and stopping if they aren’t happy 

 

The remaining is the discharge of an airweapon within proximity of a road, footpath etc.  Those would be an offence 

 

None of the above relate to your encounter, so just decide if garden shooting is suitable 

 

Now ‘prevent’

Being reported does not mean anything is wrong

Prevent is to enable minor individual factors to be noticed which could add up to a risk, such as being open to radicalisation etc

 

You have given the flags in your post:

 

ADHD - this may make an individual more at risk of being targeted and influenced (It could also make those less likely depending on the individual)

 

Interests of history and war - pretty normal - but could be flags and exploited 

Politics is a bit more niche for an 10 year old, but a fair interest to have and also could be exploited 

(Be wary of having fathered the next William Hague - he was a speaker to the Conservative conference at 16)

 

There is nothing wrong with his interests.

But he is young and these give areas that someone could exploit and push to radicalise.

(History and politics as interests can also  result in self radicalisation)

 

 

None of the above, nor a report to prevent mean anything is a risk to your son, and does not mean you are radicalising him.

It means that someone felt the need to make a report. That is most likely to come to nothing more than being spoken to

If a concern of being more open, then forms of counselling can be available to balance away from radical areas 

 

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/get-help-if-youre-worried-about-someone-being-radicalised#what-happens-when-a-person-is-referred-to-prevent

[Hudson]

I can't say much on the subject, other than to say no; you've done nothing wrong in getting your son involved in the hobby in a safe and legal manner.

 

Without knowing what your garden is like, but I would probably not do that anymore (unless yours is large and covered, just to be safe).

 

I don't know how useful it would be, but I would be putting in a complaint to the school and seeking legal advice from someone knowledgeable.

 

Such is the deterioration of the UK, that something like this is even a thing unfortunately. 😒

I hope it works out okay for you and your son, and keep us updated. I absolutely despise the schooling system and social services but that's a separate matter.

[Colin Allen]

12 minutes ago, Hudson said:

I don't know how useful it would be, but I would be putting in a complaint to the school and seeking legal advice from someone knowledgeable.

I would not recommend this approach.  The school have taken this step because they feel the need to do so; it is probably an over reaction but the best response would be to engage with them in a calm and measured manner.

[Hudson]

That's fair enough.

 

I'm letting my own biases from dealing with the education industry leak in, so I apologise for that.

 

Definitely speak to them in a calm and professional matter first, as Colin Suggests.

 

[Jez_Armstrong]

55 minutes ago, Colin Allen said:

I would not recommend this approach.  The school have taken this step because they feel the need to do so; it is probably an over reaction but the best response would be to engage with them in a calm and measured manner.

So turning up to the school and showing off the gun...... Isn't the best idea? 

 

Noted 😂

[Colin Allen]

13 minutes ago, Jez_Armstrong said:

So turning up to the school and showing off the gun...... Isn't the best idea? 

 

Noted 😂

That depends on what outcome you are looking for.

[Tackle]

Sorry to hear what your going through, as has been said, yes it's definitely a case of overreacting, but certain points, such as your sons adhd, will trigger red flags in the system due to previous cases of exploitation of vulnerable people, even if your sons background criteria doesn't fit those previous high profile cases.

What I will say is social services are probably one of the most lazy & corrupt organisations in existence,  & I would hate it if the fact that you are trying to encourage your son to pursue his interests in a controlled safe manner, is likely to be used against you.

To that end, you need to audio record all meetings with them, preferably with some sort of concealed professional device, rather than relying on a phone which can go wrong or be disrupted.

You'll need to do this covertly, SS will never voluntarily agree to recorded meetings, & will immediately leave meetings should this be discovered. 

Unfortunately their reports tend to be written in a piecemeal fashion, in order to discredit or malign those they're working against, so you need to protect yourself as a family with solid proof of what's said during these meetings, which you'll need to save & possibly document for future reference.

If you fail to do this, at the very least you'll find your son railroaded on to the "at risk register", or worse.

 

[Impulse]

I have so many thoughts on this (@Tackle above mentioned some of them), but in short you have done nothing wrong and the school has wildly overreacted and it's awful that they're doing this; I'd love to say you shouldn't need to protect yourself and your son from the SS (phrasing done intentionally), but honestly... better safe than sorry with those corrupt bureaucrats. I was interested in all the same things at his age and my parents taught me to shoot with air rifles when I was 9; I had my own air rifle and the ammo both stored in my room because I was taught well and my parents trusted me to not do anything stupid. I was then in army cadets and I loved all the shooting and fieldcraft stuff there, then I started airsoft at about the same time.

 

I was never reported to Prevent for being radicalised. Surely the first step would be to ascertain whether there actually is grounds for a report by talking to the parents about it and getting some context and/or seeing if the parents themselves are loonies (which it very much doesn't sound like you are!). It feels like in a five step process they've just decided to skip out steps 2, 3 and 4 and go straight to 5.

[novioman]

I would disagree about shooting in your garden, just be sensible, it’s airsoft not airgun so not that noisy. Make sure the bb’s are not leaving your boundaries. 

[Colin Allen]

1 hour ago, Impulse said:

Surely the first step would be to ascertain whether there actually is grounds for a report by talking to the parents about it and getting some context and/or seeing if the parents themselves are loonies (which it very much doesn't sound like you are!). It feels like in a five step process they've just decided to skip out steps 2, 3 and 4 and go straight to 5.

Indeed; that is the apparent over reaction.  I deal with flagged cases on a weekly basis and would only ever escalate to Prevent if I had very serious and urgent concerns.  I have done that once.

My favourite case was a chap who was flagged for multiple hits on "weapons related" (actually airsoft) websites and on an airsoft site that I occasionally played at.  In the meeting, I went through all the required stuff and then asked him if he had played at the site; he had, including on a couple of days when I was also there.  

Edited Saturday at 12:14 by Colin Allen

[Galvatron]

48 minutes ago, novioman said:

I would disagree about shooting in your garden, just be sensible, it’s airsoft not airgun so not that noisy. Make sure the bb’s are not leaving your boundaries. 

 

Noise and keeping BBs within the boundaries of your property aren't the only concerns. The jaded git that I've become would think some busybody neighbours may get the wrong idea if they see you in your garden with what appears to be a real gun then report you without speaking to you first to clear any misunderstanding because of this culture of fear the media has driven the UK into.

 

 

[novioman]

30 minutes ago, Galvatron said:

 

Noise and keeping BBs within the boundaries of your property aren't the only concerns. The jaded git that I've become would think some busybody neighbours may get the wrong idea if they see you in your garden with what appears to be a real gun then report you without speaking to you first to clear any misunderstanding because of this culture of fear the media has driven the UK into.

 

 

I would inform the neighbours that you are shooting in your garden, but apart from that your doing nothing wrong so as I said just be sensible.

[Daveoc33]

I've not much to add here but best of luck with dealing with this situation! I imagine there's lots of us on here looking forward to the day we can introduce our kids to the hobby and none of us would want to have a chat with social services as a result. It feels like an overreaction in the schools part to me. Unfortunately some people just don't like guns and they evoke in them an emotional response in such people. Best of luck mate, I hope you get it sorted 👍

[Dogsbody100]

All I can say with regards to ‘prevent’, schools or social workers is that they seem to have a wonderful ability to pick on completely innocent parties meanwhile the actual genuine cases of concern slip by and often go on to commit crimes.
 

When their incompetence comes to the surface we’re met with all the usual hand wringing and excuse making and a limp, wet boiler plate response telling us how thyre ‘committed’ to the highest standards.

 

This sounds like business as usual, innocent parties being incorrectly hounded.

[luke303]

Thanks to everyone for all your advice. As a family we are absolutely devastated and feel his disability has been used as weapon against him. Our garden is suitable for using the gun but we will probably knock it on the head for the foreseeable. We have asked the school very nicely for a breakdown of their concerns and to see the referral to both authorities but as yet that hasn't been forthcoming. We have actually taken him out of the school citing our own safeguarding concerns as they were documenting everything he said on history and politics. Apparently him saying he doesn't like communism is an extremist view!! I definitely will look at a listening device as I really don't trust them. My son already felt that everyone at school thought he was odd so adding this is the saddest part of it for us.

[Tackle]

@luke303, you need to make written section 51 requests under the foi act, to the school & all agencies involved.

 

Want to see what positions have the most vacancies, go on to pretty much any county council jobs pages, social worker positions far outnumber any other job.

And unfortunately it's usually because the very few good social workers don't last long, having left because of bullying & deep rooted ineptitude amongst their so called colleagues, who will happily close ranks & lie, while failing to serve societies most vulnerable who need help the most.

 

[novioman]

What a sad world 😫

[Rogerborg]

Treating perfectly normal boyish hobbies as the pretext for a Kafkaesque "disprove our secret evidence" process seems like a pretty effective way to radicalise someone.

[Impulse]

On 22/03/2025 at 16:11, luke303 said:

Apparently him saying he doesn't like communism is an extremist view!!

 

So your boy has a good head on his shoulders then. Good on him 😄

 

Though take it from me; him saying that is probably an extremist view in their opinions. Our country's education sector has been absolutely infested with people who think anything right of Lenin is "far right extremism" to the point where I've seen people I know with borderline socialist beliefs being labelled as "far right". I was a trainee teacher once upon a time (managed to fail my placement without failing a single assessment or observed lesson, and also taming the "problem class" that I was told I would never get on-side 🤔), and I have worked at a university since then and have seen this kind of stuff be all too commonplace.

 

Anyway, I'll step down from my soapbox before I really get started 😂

[EDcase]

Its sad that our education system is under left influence but there is no gain trying to fight them directly.

As stated by many above, its best to engage with the head and explain the situation calmly.

 

Edited yesterday at 02:18 by EDcase

[BigStew]

30 minutes ago, EDcase said:

Its sad that our education system is under extreme left influence but there is no gain trying to fight them directly.

As stated by many above, its best to engage with the head and explain the situation calmly.

 

Did you read that before you wrote that. Extreme left influence? There hasn't been been a UK government that has even been slightly left wing since the 70s. 

[EDcase]

Do a search for "is uk education left or right leaning"

Maybe "extreme" is a bit much

 

 

Edited yesterday at 02:18 by EDcase

[Mondai]

I may work in education, KCSIE will be followed, I'd agree this is an over reaction but per standard procedues probably unavoidable in current day.

There are people in education with a reasonable logical head screwed on, but the people you will be reffered to will most likely not be those people.

(Fingers crossed you do get a free thinking person) But just be calm and express in a non-crazed articulate manner and hopefully they understand.

 

I was heavilly into military history and weapons by 6-8, begging to join the cadets by 10. So many fond memories of shooting BB guns in the back garden.

I'd had been really bummed if this happened to me.

 

This video is of a young guy who also got many prevent refferals + SS at school from his politics (from 9), it's as you expect, one sided propaganda from people who don't undestand memes or nuance.

https://youtu.be/0b_U5KT2mZY?si=Y6BmjmtqQ2NMddCU

 

You've not done anything wrong, just the world is different now.

 

I know several airsofting students and father combo's and it's great to see their enthusiasm and interest.

 

Goodluck.

 

1 hour ago, BigStew said:

Did you read that before you wrote that. Extreme left influence? There hasn't been been a UK government that has even been slightly left wing since the 70s. 

 

Are you blind or Ignorant? 🤡

 

Though I'd agree if you were going by classical standards, which I'll assume is the case.

Lots of people have not realised the poles have flipped.

 

Edited yesterday at 03:18 by Mondai