Schools should be able to employ specialist security guards to search pupils for knives, a Senedd member has said. Cefin Campbell said teachers should also be trained in "physical conflict" to deal with students who pose a threat.

Cefin Campbell, Plaid Cymru Senedd member who speaks for the party on education, was speaking in response to the words of a teacher who was attacked by one of her pupils at Ysgol Dyffryn Aman in Ammanford. Deputy head teacher Fiona Elias, teacher Liz Hopkin, and a female pupil all received stab wounds when they were attacked in their school. Their attacker has been found guilty of attempted murder and is awaiting sentencing.

Outside court after the trial Ms Elias said the verdict was "for all teachers everywhere". "No member of school staff should ever feel fearful for their own safety merely for carrying out their own duties," she said. She added that she wanted to meet her council and the Welsh Government to "ensure that no member of staff goes through what Liz [Hopkin] and I went through last year". "Verbal and physical violence towards staff members is totally unacceptable and we must ensure there is no repeat of this incident elsewhere.

"This verdict should be seen as a clear message for pupils across the country. I would not want any individual to go through the nightmare I have endured during the last nine months," she said. For our free daily briefing on the biggest issues facing the nation sign up to the Wales Matters newsletter here.

Mr Campbell's brother was one of those involved in the incident and tried to restrain the girl. He said that "searching pupils is one solution" but asked whether "teachers want to be security guards". Speaking to BBC Radio Wales on Tuesday he said: "The question I'm asking this morning is whether teachers want to play that role of being security guards as well as being teachers. They've been trained to be teachers and we know that there could well be confrontations if teachers were to search pupils' bags.

"I don't really know what the answer is but we need to look at this carefully because unfortunately knife crime and physical violence, verbal violence, against teachers is on the increase and has been since Covid. So we need to take a very serious look at this. Whether schools want to employ specialist security guards to do this work in support of teachers, that may be another option. But I think unfortunately, because of the way society's moving, that we need to embrace that option as one of the tools in the bag," he said.

"I think the teachers' unions need to be consulted and asked whether teachers want to play this role. If they are happy to do that then that's fine but they have to be trained to do that and trained to face potential physical conflict with pupils.

"If they are not comfortable in playing that role then schools and local authorities should look at employing specialist security people to do the job. Retired policemen and women for example. Who knows? But we need to tackle the issue."

Asked if he thought metal detectors should be employed in schools he said they did not want to go down the American route but "I think we need to look at some measures that are more prohibitive than the ones we have at the moment". He added: "It's an extremely sad indictment of our society and I have no doubt that social media plays a part in in this as well. It may be teachers searching bags. It may be getting specialist security guards in to do that. Whatever the unions feel comfortable in doing – but something needs to be done," the Plaid MS said.

Mr Campbell said there was a sense of "relief" now the trial was over, especially hard after a previous trial collapsed and they had to give evidence for a second time. He was asked if his brother had changed as a result. "I spoke to him at length last night after the verdict and I think that there's a general sense of relief amongst the teaching staff and the school community in general that it's all over. The trial coming to an end brings a sense of closure. But if you remember the trial was postponed because it collapsed back in October so for many teachers, including my brother they had to relive [it] – the two teachers and the pupil had to relive the pain, the physical and the metaphorical pain of that incident.

"I think the sense of shock when it happened reverberated around the whole school, the whole community, and round Wales and even beyond. No-one expected a 14-year-old girl with the intent of causing harm and attempted murder. If it can happen in a fairly quiet community like Ammanford it can happen anywhere. The sense of fear among the teaching staff is very real and until we put measures in place that fear will carry on," he said.