YEAR 9 Citizenship students at Launceston College held a presentation on County Lines to a room full of invited guests on Thursday, May 9.

The class has been working on a project studying the impact and effect of County Lines, which is a serious criminal issue, affecting smaller communities, which has had large press of late.

Criminal gangs target young, vulnerable children and teens to traffic drugs across County Lines from large cities down to smaller towns; most recently, charges against these crimes have been reported in Exeter and Callington.

Children as young as 12 are targeted with drugs primarily being shipped around via trains and buses.

Gangs target vulnerable children, care homes and children in poverty and eventually take over homes, which is known as ‘cuckooing’.

Once the children are caught so to speak, gangs use violence and threats to target their family, are kept in line and are rarely seen in public.

The students talked about how they have written letters to the Home Secretary Sajid Javid, to ask for the current short sentences to be extended and asked for the audience to sign the petition.

Their teacher, Emma Thompson, is incredibly proud of their achievements. She spoke about the impact the work has had on the students and how the group have become more confident speaking about this issue.

She has asked the students to present their work to the whole college and surrounding primary schools, to ensure that everyone is aware of how easily young people can be targeted by these gangs. This will raise awareness and hopefully disrupt criminal activity by these gangs. 

The class has also been supported by PC Steve Stoppard of Launceston Police and the Cornwall Councillor for Launceston Central, Gemma Massey, both of whom attended many lessons and supported the students work as they continued with their project. 

PC Stoppard expressed his admiration and respect for what they are doing.

He said: “They are a committed and socially responsible group of youths who are making a difference to their community and hopefully making people more aware of a national problem and not hiding from the fact that it is here already. Too often people are quick to criticise our younger community and make assumptions about how they behave. Let this be an example of what they can achieve and let us celebrate the work done at Launceston College by a committed group of teachers and students. This is a brave and innovative piece of work which should be celebrated.”

The group’s work was accumulated into a presentation to a room of guests who they had invited to raise the profile of the issue. Attendees included parents, school governors and also youth workers. Other attendees included CEO of Cornwall Council Kate Kennally, the leader of Cornwall Council Cllr Adam Paynter, head of children and families services in Cornwall Council, Cllr Sally Hawkin, Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Commander Chief Superintendent Jim Pearce, Police Sargent Julian Morris, Launceston mayor Margaret Young and deputy mayor Dave Gordon and many more. 

The presentation received fantastic feedback with those present commenting on how well the students have raised the profile of such a current and local crime. The class have now sent their petition, of which they have been gathering signatures to request sentencing be reviewed to act as more of a deterrent to the Home Secretary.

Cllr Massey said: “It has been wonderful to work with this group, their concerns have grown the more detail that they have learnt about the issue and they knew they wanted to share these concerns with people of influence.

“Their passion to raise the profile of such crimes is infectious and their appetite to protect not just vulnerable children within our community, but their friends and peers by sharing the information has been really encouraging. I look forward to seeing the next steps of this project following today’s presentation.”

The group look to now roll out their presentation to their peers within Launceston College, surrounding colleges and also to offer a condensed version to primary schools too.

Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Commander Chief Superintendent Jim Pearce said: “The important thing is that we promote this message in the community, especially with the younger age groups. The more people become aware of the issue, the less likely it’ll occur and become a problem.

“Messages from children to children are more powerful than someone in a uniform giving those messages as they will relate to each other and take notice.

“I think the college has done a fantastic job with this year group and with this presentation.”

Launceston mayor Margaret Young added: “It was a fantastic presentation. Young people are often criticised but this is a very good example of a topic, which is very sensitive, which was very well researched and beautifully presented.”

Following the presentation, audience members were asked whether they had any questions to the pupils. Cllr Young asked: “How did you find out the information and how did you make such a fantastic presentation?” to which one of the pupils replied, “With the help of Sir (Steve) and the teacher (Mrs Thompson) we realised how bad the situation is and we wanted to share it.”

Mrs Thompson then added: “We were talking about child trafficking and after speaking to Steve, I invited him in and we’ve developed this piece of work about County Lines with Gemma and Steve. The children have become much more confident. If we can save one one child from County Lines, that’s our job done.

“I am extremely proud of the class, they were nervous, but we’re going to go out into the primary schools with a slightly different version to raise awareness and save lives.”

College principle, Bryan Maywood, added: “How do we help more students in the college who might be vulnerable and how do we get all 1,300 students in the college to think like that? Is it something we need to do to make sure that happens?”

In reply, Mrs Thompson said: “The children have grown in confidence. We need to get the sentences increased, they’re not strong enough. Please sign our petition, we have to make him aware.”

PC Stoppard added: “They’ve put in a massive amount of work.”

Mrs Thompson added: “Personal thanks to Gemma and Steve for coming in, your support and what you’ve done!”

Principle Maywood added: “As principle I’m hugely proud of the students for standing up and presenting a challenging, difficult issue and the teachers for helping them learn it. I’d like to thank Steve and Emma for all of your hard work. Thank you again to everyone!”