Police arrest parents who slate school on class WhatsApp

[noblegiraffe]

A primary school sought advice from the police after '“a high volume of direct correspondence and public social media posts” that had become upsetting for staff, parents and governors.' and the police response was to send 6 officers to their house to arrest the couple making the posts and put them in a cell all day.

Although the couple sound like an absolute pain in the arse who should pack it in, 6 police officers seems like a teensy bit of overkill, particularly with the amount of crime currently going uninvestigated. But with schools faced with spiralling numbers of vexatious parental complaints, something needs to happen. I think some unions are starting to offer legal advice and template solicitor letters for this situation.

https://www.thetimes.com/article/d8c8566b-99b1-45c6-814b-008042d74a3a?shareToken=6deab807d148cf7695ed4d9d3664c51e

I have been the target of this by a parent. It affected me very much and was nothing to do with me and everything to do with the parent. Fortunately my school had my back but I still resigned. Too much. On being told in a meeting that I’d resigned the parent said ‘oh, I never meant it to go that far’ and started asking if there was any chance they could get me to come back! Cheek of the devil. Such arrogance and entitlement. The parent has a history of this and other unacceptable behavior. Of course all under the umbrella of neurodivergence which is a real thing but not a free pass to behave with impunity. There was enough intelligence and executive function there for them to have the local authority footing the full bill for both their children to attend independent schools, one a boarder. I wish the police had paid those parents a visit.

Yeah, the irony is very strong on this thread!

Harassment is.

The reaction was so OTT , a quiet knock on the door "could you please pop down to the police station within the next 48 hours as we wish to discuss a matter with you regarding the school". Reasonable. And doesn't the UK have a huge problem with police not turning up to real crimes like house burglary ( maybe I have that wrong)
But I can tell you from bitter experience they love turning up in groups. I've had it happen to me. And here they all carry guns, and it was just me and my then non-verbal 3yo at home. And they BANG BANG on the door. And they throw everything everywhere, and then the sergeant walks in whilst you are are holding your child and trying to stop crying and asks you if you woud like to make a complaint about the search. With 8 armed police officers looking at you. Everyone say "no", of course. As did I. Mine was triggered by a warrant to search my sons bedroom, as he was accused of being a drug dealer. They found some money in his drawer( no idea where that went...., , a screwtop jar with some dried marijuana in it and 2 tiny marijuana plants in a cupboard in his room with a note saying "mum if you find these please don't throw them out". Amazingy, If he lived 300km away those 2 plants and the tiny jar of dried stuff would have been completely legal ( different state. Personal use is legal.). What a crock of shite. 8 armed cops and they were so happy when they found the jar and so disappointed when they saw the note. I'm pretty sure major drug dealers don't write notes to their mum. Whoever signed off on the 8 cops for that was a bully and a moron. It's rampant in the police. ( btw said DS doesn't use drugs now so I am very happy) . Oh and he got a 2 month suspended sentence for the plants.I would have preferred he got 3 weeks community service! It's a joke. And the amount of money spent on something that's legal in the next state and was hurting nobody, ( the case took 6 months and just the amount of trees that were chopped down to print out everything was depressing, I'm guessing at 500 pages - they decided to print the entire contents of his phone so there's pages of hey are you going to training tonight? and "wanna meet at maccas or kfc?)) yet there's no money for DV shelters, tutors for kids ,free sports for kids etc etc. And it took 2 of them to deliver this massive missive as I am a super scary unfit middle aged woman.
IME Police love going for the easy , small targets but are either scared shitless of the mr bigs or don't know how to get them. Obviously if they did know how to get them ,I assume they would. I'm not even going to mention corruption. It always comes out about 30 years later when the cop has just conveniently died. (NSW cops in the 80's were notorious) Same with celebrities. I'm not a fan clearly. Hiding in the bushes to catch people speeding ( making them their quota of points as money earned) when them driving up and down the freeway would slow down heaps more people but not earn them their "points." Sorry , I know there are some nice police out there, I even know one very well. I actually know 4 police very well. I think the fact that one out of 4 is a great person is about the real ratio sadly. Sorry for rant.

Parents should be able to complain about schools they don't get it right all the time what about their rights When my daughter was. at junior school I asked the headteacher why she wasn't in the additional literacy group and was told Oh that's way above her head She was dyslexic She then said you need to accept she will never get a GCSE it was hard with lack of school support but she ended up with good a levels and a degree She is still obviously dyslexic

Parents should be able to complain about schools they don't get it right all the time what about their rights

Schools have to have a complaints procedure which needs to be published on their website.

I don't imagine it ever says 'bitch about us on WhatsApp'.

Schools increasingly tend to have a homeschool agreement which says 'if you have any complaints or concerns, please contact the school/use the complaints procedure rather than bitching about us on WhatsApp'.

Of course parents can complain about schools. Every state school is required to have a Complaints Policy, which must be reviewed regularly, and must be published on their website. Paper copies must also be given to complainants upon request. The policy for every school will be slightly different, but it set out the different stages, how to complain, how the complaint will be considered, and potential outcomes. I have seen many instances over the years where valid complaints have been made and have been considered by governors, and the complaint upheld. I have, unfortunately, seen far more instances where schools have to deal with vexacious complaint by incredibly entitled parents who have no understanding at all of the pressures schools face of how they operate.

I’m going to guess that they either didn’t complain through the proper channels as they knew they were in the wrong or were barred from complaining through the proper channels as they were cunts

either way they sound like utter fuckers and I hope they enjoy the court case

There is no court case as all charges were dropped

Read the article - the police did speak to them and warn them about their behaviour and they pulled their daughter from the school. Clearly they persisted with the emails etc and that’s why they were arrested. Who’s to say they hadn’t deleted the worst of the comments they made on WA etc in between the warning and the arrest?

Why , strange ? You don’t use autocorrect ? I do in 3 languages, I also make mistakes .

There is no court case. That's partly the point. 6 police officers arrested them and they spent the day in a cell.

No charges were brought. Because there was no evidence of a crime.

And all the evidence was in the police's hands before this couple were arrested.

So it was a totally unnecessary police action, waste of public money and a chilling reminder of what can happen when the police are brought into petty disputes.

Oh and I hate to crticise the UK on a UK forum but this is I think the 4th time the police have gone in like stormtroopers to arrest ( usually one woman) over something she has said, It goes against alll the priniciples we share. You guys really need to pull that in. Though I've heard Canada is worse! What is going on with the Commonwealth countries. Until now the envy of the world.
Well I don't even know how to use Whatsapp but if my DS is badly behaved at school he will know it from ( pretty much everything being conficated and then gradually earned back). If the Principal treats him badly for no reason then there will be a serious discussion. Unlikely to happen as at an academically selective school and most kids are marvellous( although with a slight tendency to be wanky). 😅

The article states that the school and police were asked to put their side of the story but refused to do so.

They couldn't put their side of the story because they're not allowed to. As The Times knows perfectly well. And frankly, so should anyone with a modicum of intelligence.

You really don't want the police policing your language and speech. That never ends well. Surely even the people on this thread saying "good they are so awful to teachers" don't mean that they want police monitoring your language. I'm a bit shocked at some of the replies.

Not comforting…

This is why they’ve got media coverage in … The Times!

Good. More of this is needed; people are becoming too used to a world free of consequences...

And on Times radio too.

Oh, people would be surprised what comes through on a daily basis. Especially from ex Governors with a grudge against staff members who may have crossed them previously (usually by not agreeing with every word they say or failing to grovel in a suitably effusive manner to the - most commonly - male governor).

The Ex Governor and current councillor has standards of conduct to adhere to. Bitching about the school on Whatsapp is in itself a breach of those standards, never mind whatever has led to him being banned from the school grounds in the first place - the school being a private property that the Head is perfectly entitled to ban anybody from (and have the police remove that person or persons if they refuse to leave immediately).

I bet the local High School is looking forward to those applications

Do I need to comfort you somehow too ? Again, why ?

Do you think the behaviour of the school upholds these principles?

@saraclara That's really nonsense. The school can issue a statement to the media. If I were the HT I would say something along the lines of we try to resolve issues with parents, we have a complaint procedure and always endeavour to hold constructive discussions. Children always paramount and their interests etc

The school should be reassuring the community of parents that their jobs depend on that they are professional, have good intents, they put children first and only go to the police as the most last resort option.

Without that statement the school looks like it's defensive, persecuting parents and has something to hide. I would think twice before sending a child there.