“I’m lost for words,” I told a friend last night. My own words nagged me for ages. I concluded that sometimes when it is hardest to find the words, it is most important to do so.

This wasn’t the article I intended to write this week. It’s not my story to tell. From my comfortable bubble in my warm house with my family around me, the Sunday roast in the oven and my regular teacher salary, who am I to represent this family? But I’m a writer - and with this role comes a sense of responsibility, a duty to “give voice” to those whose stories are not being heard.

This is the most awful kind of story. The kind of story that has parents waking up in cold sweats at night. The kind we read about and hug our children a little harder. As I type, the funeral is taking place of Sadiq Aadam Mohamed, who was stabbed to death at the age of 20 in Camden on 20 February. His brother was murdered in similar circumstances fewer than six months ago. He was also 20 years old.

“Who died, Mummy?” asked my daughter on overhearing a snippet of conversation between me and my husband. A long time ago, we agreed that we wouldn’t wrap the world in cotton wool for our children. I explained, truthfully and carefully, that our dear family friend, also a teacher, had just phoned with a query about what best to wear to an Islamic funeral. The funeral of a young man who had been killed. “Yes, they have arrested someone for doing it,” I think I said, but not with the conviction I would hope to convey.

As I write, my friend is at the funeral of a boy who’d been in her tutor group for five years - with whom she’d enjoyed the kind of relationship that comes with seeing a child grow from a hyperactive Year 7 to a moody Year 9 to an articulate young man who had gone on to university to study business. The role of form tutor is such a vital one - to be effectively in loco parentis for a child at the beginning of every school day creates the most powerful bonds.

How teachers can help

I am far from the epicentre of this tragedy. Yet the ripple effects of it are with me. My friend’s devastation has touched me to the core. Desensitisation to such tragedies is rife.

However, in writing this piece, I urge all reading not to simply let this story pass. At the very least, let each of us think of Mrs Abdi, the mother of Sadiq, as we tuck into our family meal tonight. Though our instinct is to recoil from the unthinkable, let us for a moment imagine her unspeakable anguish and her shattered family.

As teachers, let’s do what we do best, for education is always the key. On a practical note, this means:

• Talking about the issues. Keeping dialogue with students and their parents open
• Creating safe and secure spaces in which students can learn and aspire free of danger
• Trusting our professional instincts and reporting our concerns about individuals to our child protection leads
• Being persistent as school leaders in ensuring our students receive the support they need from external bodies - not allowing our concerns to be fobbed off

As teachers, it is essential that we feel empowered to involve the politicians and the lawmakers who are in a position to protect other parents from Mrs Abdi’s unspeakable anguish.

Uncomfortable questions

This is not the place or the time for social or political commentary. It would be brash and irresponsible of me to comment on funding cuts and limited services. But I do find myself hoping that somebody with greater expertise and power than I hold will take these issues and respond before more young lives are cut nonsensically, appallingly short.

“What the hell is happening here? And who is doing something about it?” responded a former student from the same school when we discussed what had happened. What, indeed? It’s an uncomfortable question. Sometimes the most uncomfortable questions are the ones that need to be asking again and again and again.

Rest in peace, Sadiq. We must not let your story be forgotten.

Emma Kell is a full-time head of department in north-east London and completed her doctorate in education last year. She is author of How to Survive in Teaching

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