Maxie Allen and Rosalind Levine arrested - The vindictiveness of the school and police overreach

"Everyone has the right to believe what they want. That is the freedom of the land - the right to believe. Now why do you hate the fact that I have the right to believe too?"
This seems a bit odd considering you are arguing against parents expressing their feelings about a school...the opposite of freedom? Am I losing the plot here?

"Well there has to be a reason why they are not sharing them. I mean by all means accept that you have every right to believe it."
Are you saying you know that there were other messages, that the police have but haven't charged for or that the school won't show? I haven't seen any suggestion of that anywhere, but if they aren't charging for it then surely they would have been posted by now if they existed?

Well there has to be a reason why they are not sharing them. I mean by all means accept that you have every right to believe it.

I am allowed to add extra sentences. Is that not allowed? my bad! I'll run it past you next time!

If I wanted to say something offensive I would but I am more mature than some. I do not debate with name calling or offensive language. Maybe if that is your first thought then that speaks volumes about what your go to is!

You actual name isn't even attached! Nor is anyone else's on here! Odd that eh?

I'm not asking you to believe me. You have every right to not believe me as have I every right to not believe parents who omit things on purpose. Everyone has the right to believe what they want. That is the freedom of the land - the right to believe. Now why do you hate the fact that I have the right to believe too?

Now do you understand what debating is? That means people with different opinions can talk about it. You do not need to cry over someone who disagrees with you or get your knickers in a twist about it. You can be mature and debate properly and say, as I have, that you have the right to disagree and the right to think what you want about me. I will lose no sleep over what you think! But looks likely you will over what I think!

Do you not think I have the right to question parents who omit things? Or should parents be untouchables?

Nothing to hide and no smoke without fire are fallacies.

You've edited this post, why? What did you want changing for public consumption? And your actual name isn't even attached to it. You might sat it is grammar or typos, but why should we believe you? What if you actually wrote something offensive but decided you don't want to release the original version?

The letter clearly says do not post defamatory things about members of staff.

Why did she lose her rag? Like children who come crying saying - mum they just shouted at me? The next question is why? Why did someone have to do that? What did the parent do to get a teacher to threaten the police? I've only ever seen that happen in a school when parents have threatened staff and been aggressive. So if this is the case then she is within her rights to tell the parents that if the parents have been aggressive towards her. The parents will never admit to that if they have done it. They never do! It is always 'just happened'! Just like kids say something 'just happened'!

I've read some of the exchange - the parts that they have agreed to show. Not all of it as for some reason they have only released some. One would ask why that is and why only certain parts have been shared. Maybe they do not wish to show the bits that have caused the issue. As kids do and some ppl on here, conveniently crop things to make it seem like it is about something else or cut off parts that would show the real truth.

Now is there a reason someone would do that? I mean surely they have nothing to hide as parents if they have done nothing?

Whippy

She didn't say that. The letter said nothing of the sort.

I think it's incontrovertible that she absolutely did tell them not to speak about school matters. Another mother told about how she lost her rag with her and threatened to have her arrested.

For talking about another school matter.

I mean, you've read the WhatsApp exchange, haven't you? Do you honestly think they'd spoof a conversation, just to bully the acting head? They are discussing her fiat, forbidding discussion of her.

It's tin foil hat territory to claim otherwise.

These are the letters from the school that have been published.

The first one says the school will take action against anyone whose SM posts cause disharmony in school (letter to all parents).

The other letter was the one the school sent to the couple and it literally says “the school wrote to all parents requesting that social media was not used to post negative posts about staff or the school which causes disharmony within the school community”. The school says they wrote to the parents telling them not to post negative things on SM! 🤦🏻‍♀️

Why was it then? The police haven't shown any malicious communication, which is what they were looking for. Why they couldn't have checked that before being heavy handed, presumably there was a recipient? All stinks of misuse of public services and an inability to deal with difficult situations in an adult manner.

Nope it wasn't for talking negatively about the school. The letter never mentioned talking about the school.

It could definitely be dealt with differently, doesn't make it illegal.

We can't have police arresting citizens because some people believe they behaved poorly. Crikey, if that was the threshold everyone in the country would have been arrested at least once!

Um, that's why they were arrested, for talking negatively about the school on a group chat and calling one of the teachers a control freak.

Who said this couldn't happen?

It really is making me wonder if we need a schools ombudsmen - Ofsted obviously has enough going on but parents do need to have a forum to communicate, perhaps even more so if something isn't working. Isolating parents from discussing "negative" things doesn't sound like a practical or forward thinking approach.

So who sent the email saying to butt out??

"Ms Vince and MP (and former Deputy Prime Minister) Oliver Dowden found themselves recipients of veiled legal threats from Hertfordshire Police when they took an interest in the long-running affair.
She added: 'I emailed the school to see what steps were being taken to resolve this dispute and I received an email from a PC who was investigating the case telling me (and anyone I'd CC'd into the email, which included Mr Dowden), that we should essentially 'butt out', or face the threat of prosecution ourselves.'
The email, seen by MailOnline, signed by a PC Oliver Limb, says: 'I ask that your communication [with the school] as a third party ceases from this point onwards as you may find yourself being recorded as a suspect in a harassment investigation.
'I also ask that this warning to yourself is forwarded to any party that you have CC'd following your email.'
Mr Dowden told the Times: 'I'm astonished that a situation could have arisen where any police officer could think it would be remotely acceptable to suggest that an MP should be curtailed in carrying out their democratic duties.
'As the chief constable has promised, it's essential we get to the bottom of what happened here.
'And as a society we need to rebalance the culture on this, so that police focus on shoplifting, burglary and other crimes that rightly concern my constituents, and don't get bogged down and interfere in legitimate public debate.'
"

From the DM link above.

So you're all going to ignore that fact this ridiculous temp HT had an officer tell a local MP who tried to resolve it that she'd have the police called on her if she didn't butt out?

Last i checked, local MP are meant to intervene in these situations, and having the school HT get the police to email her to tell her to butt out or be arrested herself is beyond ridiculous.

Sorry, the tHT is a crackpot with a very inflated sense of her importance.

She didn't say that. The letter said nothing of the sort.

Ok, point taken but where can I find the messages?

YorkshireLass -

I understand freedom to criticise schools and teachers - but who creates a libellous WhatsApp group like they did.

The acting head forbade them from talking about the school, which she has no right, of authority to do. She threatened another mother with arrest, over another matter discussed by parents.

That's pretty Well textbook control freakery.

Not to mention that there is no lawful way to arrest someone for libel, as its a civil, not a criminal matter. The acting head seems to be a thin skinned egotist.

Private WhatsApp group of 12-15 people. An ex councillor, it's just naive. Be honest, would you have dealt with this this way?

Yes the whatsapp groups are toxic. Thank god you found it and learnt to read and conveniently cut off the words before it which says it is about the groups! Now why would you do something like that? Of course to suggest something that it doesn't say.

It says:
"I have based my opinion on what I see daily from such groups. They are toxic....."

They means groups as I had clearly said in the sentence before which you chose to cut off to pretend I meant parents. Either that or your reading skills are very much lacking.

This

It is pretty scary that they couldn't even find what they were looking for with 6 officers. Where are those officers when someone has been burgled? If a bloke is harassing a woman only 1 officer gets sent to see her then pop by and ask him to stop. Far more serious than parents having a moan that the school isn't doing what it is meant to.

First thing I wondered when I saw this was is one of the teachers married to a police head or have a father in the force? It was clearly meant to intimidate all of the parents at the school into keeping quiet.

SomethingInnocuousForNow · Today 16:41

Thanks for that, it's interesting that some of the other parents describe the couple as lovely and it being unexpected. Also, the other mother telling how the deputy head shouted at her and threatened to have her arrested.

For all those speculating that the couple were abusive and aggressive, it looks like the complete opposite. It sounds like the acting head has a bad case of DARVO.

What was libellous about what they wrote, in your opinion?

i’m curious, as nothing I’ve seen would amount to libel IMO.