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

There is a recognized trend of senior/head teachers' time being taken up by vexatious parental complaints and communications. This takes away significantly from time that could be better spent on teaching and learning. In my experience some of the worst offenders are 'respectable' citizens who feel that their social status entitles them to significant input into the day to day running of the school. The fact that these parents think it's appropriate that they get to contribute to the recruitment process is very telling. I don't know this specific school but I do know that banning parents from a site is not a step that is taken lightly so there is definitely a lot of context missing from the Times report.

Equally you don’t know if other parents were discontented with management of the school

Although the reporting to the police and the general behaviour of the teachers regarding a child with the issues she has suggests that the parents were right to ask questions about the appointment

No, it doesn't.

So he works for Times Radio and The Times reported this with a bias towards him. He sounds like a bully in the article. I'm glad the Police acted.

On another note that pale yellow jumper he is wearing in his 'outraged' picture is so unflattering.

I did read in an article that stated many parents had come out in support of them but I can’t find that now so I’m happy to withdraw that statement until I stumble across it again.

Herts PCC has criticised the police’s reaction

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/police-chief-criticises-force-parents-arrested-whatsapp-group-b1219622.html www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/police-chief-criticises-force-parents-arrested-whatsapp-group-b1219622.html]]]]

A councillor who emailed on behalf of the parents seems to have been told by the police to not contact the school again. The officer seems to have gone on to inform her that the recruitment process was under way!! What is the police’s job again??

”A county councillor has been warned that she faced becoming a suspect if she helped parents who complained about their daughter’s school.
Michelle Vince, of Hertfordshire county council, has taken the step of installing a home security doorbell system, as she fears her property will be raided after sending emails on behalf of Maxie Allen, 50, and Rosalind Levine, 46, who raised concerns over the recruitment process for a new headteacher at Cowley Hill Primary School.
She told The Sunday Times the case raises serious questions about police “taking away democratic rights” from elected representatives.
In an email sent to her from a Hertfordshire police officer on December 20 2024, ahead of the arrests, they said: “I ask that your communication (with the school) ceases from this point onwards as you may find yourself liable to being recorded as a suspect in a harassment investigation.”
They added: “I can confirm that the vacancy for the position of headteacher is now an active posting and therefore there is no further reason for any communication from yourself to be had.”
They said the councillor had “no reason to have any involvement in the matter”. The police were asked to get involved by the school due to the “high volume of direct correspondent and public social media posts”, which had led staff, parents and governors to become upset.
Ms Vince said: “I’ve been warned by the police against getting involved. I’ve reported this to Hertfordshire county council’s legal department.
“I’m terrified now that they’re going to come for me and knock on my door at any time. Maxine and Ros did nothing wrong. They only dared to ask the question of the school and that was enough to have them arrested.”
Jonathan Ash-Edwards, the Police and Crime Commissioner for Hertfordshire, ordered a review after Mr Allen and Ms Levine were reportedly detained in front of their young daughter by six officers before being left in a cell for eight hours.
Mr Ash-Edwards said Hertfordshire Constabulary should never have involved itself in the first place after the parents criticised Cowley Hill Primary School in Borehamwood on a WhatsApp group.”

That’s from a Times article.

Tory PCC. Big surprise.

This Michelle Vince? 😂

Borehamwood councillor fined after being found guilty of public order offences | Borehamwood Times

Roping in his mate on the council instead of going through the formal complaints procedure?

Anyone still wanting to claim that this was a bloke contacting the school normally in a normal way about normal things to do with his daughter with SEN?

He’s also right. The police should never have been involved.

Meaning?

The Tories/Reform are big on free speech, 2-tier justice, teachers are terrible blah, blah. I'm expecting Maxie to be the new poster boy for the Free Speech Union any day now.

So he's going to take full responsibility and resign as it happened on his watch?

Yes. Because the number of hours in a day does not bend around how many SEN students a teacher has. We ask far too much of teachers now. I back them all the way.

I grew up in Rotherham.
Our Labour councillors and police commissioner were all about raping children and silencing people who spoke out about it.

Swings and roundabouts I guess.

I think it’s part of a wider public culture of everyone being a ‘customer’ now and feeling entitled to whatever they ask for as ‘I pay your wages’. They also confuse their entitlement to a reasonable service with entitlement to the best service money can buy, which unless they get they’re ’being failed’.

With SEN parent articles, I usually find they can’t wrap their head around the fact their child is not entitled to a completely bespoke, money-no-object education which bends to their every request.

The police were OTT for sending so many officers and doing it all in front of the child. However if it stops that guy being extremely unpleasant on the ridiculous WhatsApp and social media, it's a good result!

This whole thing revolved around his obsession with the recruitment of the acting head (which was absolutely standard procedure).

He had no more right to involve himself in recruitment decisions than any other parent. Yet he did so to the point that he had to be banned from the premises.

Can you imagine if every parent thought they had a right to decide who should be acting head? And why are people defending him doing so in such a persistent and obsessive manner?

Whether the police overreacted is a separate issue. The school asking them for advice on dealing with this man who was determined to ignore his ban, was not unreasonable.

Oh wait minute…Councillor Vince is Labour! Does that mean we can make assumptions about her involvement? Is her violence a “big surprise” as she’s Labour?

I have no idea if Herts PCC is going to resign.

How do you know he didn’t go through the school’s normal complaints procedures and did the councillor contact the school after she’d been “roped in” by her mate? You know that happened for definite?

Also, his contact wasn’t just about his daughter. You’ve said that yourself. He was involving himself in the recruitment process for the new head with no basis and being all abusive and unreasonable by speaking to the Chair of Governors. Blimey, thinking about it, I spoke to our Chair at pick-up on Friday 😱

This bloke & his DP may be the most horrendous, abusive, violent parents a school has ever known but there is nothing in that article to back up people’s assertions on this thread. Anything that isn’t 100% backing the school is disparaged and so much has been assumed. Everyone is assuming the school was 100% in the right and therefore everything they are saying is true.

I have personal experience of parental lynch mobs in a school and it was horrendous to deal with. We had several people who should have had the police called on them but the Head never did and I experienced only some of the abuse she did. Nothing that I’ve seen about this story would merit police involvement.

With SEN parent articles, I usually find they can’t wrap their head around the fact their child is not entitled to a completely bespoke, money-no-object education which bends to their every request.

Parents of DC with SEN are perfectly aware LAs do not have a legal duty to provide the best possible education or the best possible outcomes. LAs do, however, have a duty to provide what is legally reasonably required to meet the child or young person’s SEN, what is appropriate for the child or young person and a suitable education, even if that is expensive. The duty goes beyond providing just what is adequate, which is what many fail to understand.

Yes, I know that happened for definite, @Lolapusht because you posted that it did. “she fears her property will be raided after sending emails on behalf of Maxie Allen, 50, and Rosalind Levine, 46, who raised concerns over the recruitment process for a new headteacher.”

EHCPs massively overpromise what can be provided given the number of children who now have them. They were designed to provide a high level of care and education to a couple of hundred thousand children, not the 500,000+ kids who have them now. The schools then flail to meet them, and are accused of ‘failing’ the kids which isn’t true. The need has risen beyond what can physically be met.

That isn’t the fault of individual parents enforcing their child’s rights. The absolute duty to provide the SEP in EHCPs lies with LAs, not schools. This duty is absolute and non-delegable. Lack of funding, staffing or resources is not a lawful reason for breach of section 42 of the Children and Families Act 2014, despite what some think.

EHCPs were never just going to be for a couple of hundred thousand. When the transition to EHCPs from Statements of SEN started, more than 200,000 had Statements. Before the transition to EHCPs was complete there were more than 300,000 with an EHCP or Statement of SEN. When looking at the statistics you also have to consider EHCPs can remain in place for longer compared to Statements of SEN which accounts for some of the increase.

So it’s okay to make violently sexual comments about a female member of SLT in a school because she was involved in the discipline of your child? I’d say that was criminal-and needs to be stopped.