Confiscation Cabinets: 250 Things Confiscated From Schoolchildren ... Including THIS Scary Homemade Axe!

Guy Tarrant [auto-sound] is an artist and a teacher, and he's got the war trophies to prove it. In this "Confiscation Cabinets," Tarrant and contributors Mercedes Philips and Kim Campbell exhibited his collection of some 250 confiscated things over the past 30 years from 150 different schools in and around London.

Toys and sweets make up a big part of the collection, but there are also bottles of alcohol and actual and makeshift weapons that look like they belong in prison rather than grade schools. The exhibition was on display at The Museum of Childhood in East London, and is on display at the Life Science Centre, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, until November 2014.

Yes, that's a homemade axe confiscated from a Year 7 boy (students at this grade usually are of the age of eleven to thirteen). Tarrant noted that many of the confiscated items are from students with social, emotional and behavioral difficulties.

This girls confiscation cabinet, exhibited at the group show "Culture, Boredom, Alienation and Despair" at the 20-21 Arts Centre in 2010 shows that most confiscated items from girls consist of inappropriate clothing and make-up items.

Photos: Guy Tarrant