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Original poster

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

484 replies

Everanewbie · 01/04/2025 08:45

AIBU to worry that this type of incident seems to be happening more and more? To me, there are several concerning aspects to this story. Here is a link if you aren't yet aware.

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/mar/29/parents-arrested-by-hertfordshire-police-for-complaining-about-daughters-school

Firstly, the apparent opaqueness of a public organisation and attempts to shut down private conversation and the vindictiveness the school has shown in attempting to silence this couple.

Secondly, the treatment of the pupil whereby she is being dropped off an escorted into school, and inability to discuss he disability and SEN with teachers, leading to multiple emails that were ultimately used against the couple.

And thirdly, WTF are the police doing? 6 Officers to arrest a meek professional couple, in front of their daughter. Holding them in a cell for 11 hours? Why are the police not dismissing this out of hand? I have always tried to be a supporter of the police, but how can reasonable people continue to accept this when they wont attend a burglary or detain shoplifters, but turn up in force for a middle class couple who called a governor a control freak in a private conversation?

OP posts:
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17
BiancaBlank · 01/04/2025 10:51

I read that they needed several officers to arrest the couple/look after the kids/bag up all the evidence, not because they were expecting resistance. Even so, six seems a lot.

What baffles me is that the police ‘investigated’ for five weeks and then decided there was no case. Surely they would have known that before the arrest, as they already had all the evidence, such as it was!

Whole thing sounds nuts.

redcord · 01/04/2025 10:44

Gosh, he is a very articulate chap and sounded perfectly reasonable and fair on that 'Heretic' clip.

IMO, his only 'crime' was plopping his 'official' letter into the mum's group. But only in an eye-roll 'man here' kind of way, and not in a' 6 police officers arresting you on your doorstep in handcuffs' kind of way.

Original poster
Everanewbie · 01/04/2025 10:40

ExtraOnions · 01/04/2025 10:34

…I’m sure that was a completly unbiased interview 🙄🙄🙄🙄

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Maybe you should listen to it to get his side of the story?

OP posts:
ExtraOnions · 01/04/2025 10:34

Everanewbie · 01/04/2025 10:17

Thank you for taking the time to write this reply. That was my impression from Maxie's interview on Heretics. At the heart of it they sound like good people who didn't deserve to be treated in this way.

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…I’m sure that was a completly unbiased interview 🙄🙄🙄🙄

BunfightBetty · 01/04/2025 10:32

Are parents not allowed to air their views about a school in a private WhatsApp group? Are we to be censored?

Even if it were a public forum, eg. Facebook, why can't they be honest about their experiences and opinions related to a school? As a public institution, we all have a right to know what goes on in a school. I'm currently looking at secondary options for my year 5, and too right I'm asking for parental opinions of the schools, it's an important part of the info I'm using to decide.

If a school doesn't want certain matters discussed, it needs to have a good look at itself and ask itself why. If its procedures and practices are good and proper, then there can be no harm in people knowing about them. It's only if they have something to hide that they'd be concerned.

As for refusing to communicate verbally about a child with a serious medical condition and SEN and then complaining about receiving emails instead, I do hope they're not offering verbal reasoning lessons, as they don't seem to understand the concept.

Ultimately, this will backfire on the school a la Streisand effect.

Original poster
Everanewbie · 01/04/2025 10:17

BarchesterTowels · 01/04/2025 10:09

I actually know this couple. Not going to say much in case it's too outing, but they are lovely, altruistic people who do a huge amount for charity and their local community and frankly I couldn't imagine a couple less deserving of the treatment they received. They are also not the sort of people who will turn a blind eye if they think injustice is being done or (as with the school recruitment) due process is not being followed. Maxie Allen is or was a local councillor and cares deeply about things being done properly and openly. If that makes him a 'busybody' then I think he'd accept the label. But they absolutely did nothing wrong and the school's characterising legitimate concerns about governance as "harassment" is simply dishonest.

Thank you for taking the time to write this reply. That was my impression from Maxie's interview on Heretics. At the heart of it they sound like good people who didn't deserve to be treated in this way.

OP posts:
User46576 · 01/04/2025 10:16

WinterBones · 01/04/2025 09:45

That was posted before it came out that the local elected PCC ordered a review into the polices involvement.. and made it quite clear he thinks it should never have been a police matter in the first place.

That thread was largely people slagging off the parents and saying they deserved it when i was reading.

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I just went on that thread- a lot of the teachers union mn types slagging off the parents basically. One even posted an unflattering picture of the mother to mock her. Really shocking that some adults behave like that. Their behaviour is far worse than the messages in the parents whatsapp group that Maxie and Ros were arrested for. Bet they wouldn’t be too happy if the police turned up at their door (nor should they but it’s not ok for Maxie and Ros either).

User46576 · 01/04/2025 10:11

BarchesterTowels · 01/04/2025 10:09

I actually know this couple. Not going to say much in case it's too outing, but they are lovely, altruistic people who do a huge amount for charity and their local community and frankly I couldn't imagine a couple less deserving of the treatment they received. They are also not the sort of people who will turn a blind eye if they think injustice is being done or (as with the school recruitment) due process is not being followed. Maxie Allen is or was a local councillor and cares deeply about things being done properly and openly. If that makes him a 'busybody' then I think he'd accept the label. But they absolutely did nothing wrong and the school's characterising legitimate concerns about governance as "harassment" is simply dishonest.

We ultimately should all be free to be “busybodies” if that means holding our public bodies to account. It’s horrifying what happened to this couple

YouFetidMoppet · 01/04/2025 10:09

The school sounds terrible. Hope the staff are reading this. Maybe they'll call the police on all of us. Sometimes you just need to accept you are doing a shit job and move on.

It is sad how they are treating the disabled child. I have one now in a special school who was treated amazingly by his mainstream, despite being severely autistic. There needs to be some official standards to meet for SEND children in schools, it is so variable between schools. The way they treated the parents shows a distinct lack of understanding and unwillingness to collaborate. Poor child at the centre of this. They always forget the kids needs. It's not always the schools fault though and the government need to accept the cost of specialist provision and sort out SEND provision. It is not doing our children any favours at all.

It is highly embarrassing for the school who will probably moan about having stretched resources, actually wasting police resources instead.

User46576 · 01/04/2025 10:09

ExtraOnions · 01/04/2025 09:28

Gobby arsehole parent.. harasses staff with multiple emails, harasses staff on premises, and harasses staff via Whatapp - and is then shocked when he is reported.

Entitled is more of a suitable label.

I bet the local high school can’t wait for his applications to turn up.

He didn’t harass anyone, certainly not staff. He initially raised the issue of deputy head being given the job of head instead of an external recruitment process with the school governors. He was banned from the school then and not allowed to talk to teachers at all despite having a vulnerable SEN child with medical needs. Hence why there are so many emails- most are just about the child. He did make a perfectly polite complaint via the schools complaint system too.

The staff were not on the whatsapp - it was a private parents group. Neither of the parents harassed anyone yet the police arrested them and held them in a cell for hours.

All they did was criticize a public authority that should be accountable to them and all of us. Why should they be arrested for that? You’ve criticized them and made false accusations- is it ok if the police turn up and arrest you? Or should we all be entitled to our opinions.

BarchesterTowels · 01/04/2025 10:09

I actually know this couple. Not going to say much in case it's too outing, but they are lovely, altruistic people who do a huge amount for charity and their local community and frankly I couldn't imagine a couple less deserving of the treatment they received. They are also not the sort of people who will turn a blind eye if they think injustice is being done or (as with the school recruitment) due process is not being followed. Maxie Allen is or was a local councillor and cares deeply about things being done properly and openly. If that makes him a 'busybody' then I think he'd accept the label. But they absolutely did nothing wrong and the school's characterising legitimate concerns about governance as "harassment" is simply dishonest.

Carouselfish · 01/04/2025 10:03

@WillimNot shocking but also shocking you made children go to school who were vomiting in fear. One violent incident and they shouldn't have gone back to a dangerous situation.

HappydaysArehere · 01/04/2025 09:50

Perhaps this is likely to be associated with the Academy system where heads might be business people and never taught a class in their lives. Finance is everything.
The heads I remember when I was teaching had all been teachers who put the children’s well being at the heart of the school. The ethos of the school permeates down and these antics would have been unheard of then.

mumofoneAlonebutokay · 01/04/2025 09:48

WillimNot · 01/04/2025 08:57

I wasn't even slightly surprised by this and I think it happens far more than is reported.

In my experience, schools which don't want an open narrative are usually the worst imaginable.

My DD and DS were both violently bullied whilst at primary school, which was an academy run by the diocese of Oxford. I begged the school leadership to intervene but received excuse after excuse. They also failed to report to the police under prevent. They told me and my DH we were racist and I was slagged to death to volunteer PTA parents by the headmistress.

It became a witch hunt against us, meanwhile, my DD especially was coming home covered head to toe in bruises and vomiting at the idea of attending school.

They made her out to be the issue, making her see a child psychologist who told her that Mummy and Daddy are making her sad and the boys involved (of which there was 6, all twice her size) were being mean as she annoyed them. Lovely bit of victim shaming.

The final straw was DS being viciously punched to the ground at pick up time in front of me and several other shocked parents as he went past to meet DD from her classroom door. I will never forget the yelp of pain as he hit the floor. The boy involved - who I had been told was not asked to apologise as "in his culture boys and men don't say sorry" smirked. Teachers saw this and told me off for getting upset.

I was then ordered to a meeting and told because I had begged a teacher, through tears, to intervene, that this was "aggressive" and "abusive" towards staff and i would need to collect by arrangement after school. I was then told if I didn't like it I could remove my children.

In the end I did so and I informed the police regards the terror related threats spoken by the two ringleaders and how one of their fathers had attended school and intimidated myself and another parent. They took it under prevent and raided three homes at 5am. They also put three boys on CPO and they contacted school to advise they had failed to follow procedure.

We did ask for a meeting to complain but they refused, and slagged us to death to their new school at the time- they were horrified by the records and said they couldn't understand why my children were blamed.

Schools now can do as they wish, there is currently a secondary in Reading where if a parent asks for clarity on a sanction for a minor issue, they are sent a banning notice.

I think that my autistic dd is being picked on by a verbal child (she is non verbal) and her school is covering it up

I have kept her home today as she was so upset yesterday.

I don't trust them at all, and I thought I was mad. Reading your story has helped me realise that schools really are not to be trusted.

I hope that your children are being treated better now at their new school? 💕

Original poster
Everanewbie · 01/04/2025 09:47

WhatAPrettyHouse · 01/04/2025 09:43

Agree

Show quote history

What particular 'offence' do you think they deserved to be arrested for? I do feel that there is a degree of busy body about him, but that is not a crime.

OP posts:
WinterBones · 01/04/2025 09:45

Canterranter · 01/04/2025 09:24

Massive discussion on the same topic, might be useful.

That was posted before it came out that the local elected PCC ordered a review into the polices involvement.. and made it quite clear he thinks it should never have been a police matter in the first place.

That thread was largely people slagging off the parents and saying they deserved it when i was reading.

WhatAPrettyHouse · 01/04/2025 09:43

ExtraOnions · 01/04/2025 09:28

Gobby arsehole parent.. harasses staff with multiple emails, harasses staff on premises, and harasses staff via Whatapp - and is then shocked when he is reported.

Entitled is more of a suitable label.

I bet the local high school can’t wait for his applications to turn up.

Agree

Original poster
Everanewbie · 01/04/2025 09:41

ExtraOnions · 01/04/2025 09:28

Gobby arsehole parent.. harasses staff with multiple emails, harasses staff on premises, and harasses staff via Whatapp - and is then shocked when he is reported.

Entitled is more of a suitable label.

I bet the local high school can’t wait for his applications to turn up.

That is not what I took from the story and the interview with Maxie on Heretics. What I took from it was that the governors had not followed the proper process in recruiting a new head, and they acted petulantly and obstructively. If they had nothing to hide, why were they so obstructive?

The messages he sent were in a private whatsapp group, and were very mild.

Even if you think this couple were busy bodies, harassment threshold is not met by asking awkward questions, and dealing with matters relating to your disabled daughter on the SEN spectrum via email because that was the only communication method open to them thanks to the school.

Even so, 6 coppers?

OP posts:
ExtraOnions · 01/04/2025 09:28

Gobby arsehole parent.. harasses staff with multiple emails, harasses staff on premises, and harasses staff via Whatapp - and is then shocked when he is reported.

Entitled is more of a suitable label.

I bet the local high school can’t wait for his applications to turn up.

User46576 · 01/04/2025 09:26

WillimNot · 01/04/2025 08:57

I wasn't even slightly surprised by this and I think it happens far more than is reported.

In my experience, schools which don't want an open narrative are usually the worst imaginable.

My DD and DS were both violently bullied whilst at primary school, which was an academy run by the diocese of Oxford. I begged the school leadership to intervene but received excuse after excuse. They also failed to report to the police under prevent. They told me and my DH we were racist and I was slagged to death to volunteer PTA parents by the headmistress.

It became a witch hunt against us, meanwhile, my DD especially was coming home covered head to toe in bruises and vomiting at the idea of attending school.

They made her out to be the issue, making her see a child psychologist who told her that Mummy and Daddy are making her sad and the boys involved (of which there was 6, all twice her size) were being mean as she annoyed them. Lovely bit of victim shaming.

The final straw was DS being viciously punched to the ground at pick up time in front of me and several other shocked parents as he went past to meet DD from her classroom door. I will never forget the yelp of pain as he hit the floor. The boy involved - who I had been told was not asked to apologise as "in his culture boys and men don't say sorry" smirked. Teachers saw this and told me off for getting upset.

I was then ordered to a meeting and told because I had begged a teacher, through tears, to intervene, that this was "aggressive" and "abusive" towards staff and i would need to collect by arrangement after school. I was then told if I didn't like it I could remove my children.

In the end I did so and I informed the police regards the terror related threats spoken by the two ringleaders and how one of their fathers had attended school and intimidated myself and another parent. They took it under prevent and raided three homes at 5am. They also put three boys on CPO and they contacted school to advise they had failed to follow procedure.

We did ask for a meeting to complain but they refused, and slagged us to death to their new school at the time- they were horrified by the records and said they couldn't understand why my children were blamed.

Schools now can do as they wish, there is currently a secondary in Reading where if a parent asks for clarity on a sanction for a minor issue, they are sent a banning notice.

This is absolutely horrific.

User46576 · 01/04/2025 09:24

Canterranter · 01/04/2025 09:23

There's a massive thread on this already.

Is that the one by the teachers union poster?

User46576 · 01/04/2025 09:23

agree op - Andrew Gold did an interview with the Dad involved on his podcast/you Tube channel Heretics.

It’s genuinely shocking the reaction from the school to some fairly mild criticism in a private whatsapp group. Further there’s no doubt their behaviour in banning the parents from the school for no good reason (because they criticised the board for appointing the deputy head as head teacher instead of having a proper external process) has the potential to be harmful to their child (who has SEN and epilepsy). Absolutely appalling behaviour from police and school imo.

https://youtube.com/@andrewgoldheretics?si=8nkF0IScTWy50q2Q

Canterranter · 01/04/2025 09:23

There's a massive thread on this already.

Swipe left for the next trending thread