This is just shocking (trigger warning -racism)

[iloverock]

www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/department-for-education-metropolitan-police-services-scotland-yard-hackney-b988292.html

Please read the formal review.

Essentially the teaching staff called the police because a black 15 year old girl smelt of cannabis. She was taken to a room and strip searched. She was on her period. Her mother wasn't notified. She was not given the opportunity for an appropriate adult to be present.

Absolutely fucking disgusting, I didn't think my opinion of the Met could sink much lower but it has and I have police in my wider family.

What did others write in their complaints to the Met. I'm juggling lots and not firing on all cylinders so you complete fuckwits is all I can come up with or "I am disgusted by the treatment of this child and expect that you deal with the matter promptly and harshly in order to regain a small amount of your community's trust".

This is just so appalling that i cannot quite comprehend how many people let that girl down or were actively out to get her.

• the teacher who thought it was appropriate to call the police in the first place for something so minor (and false ffs!)
• the police officer who then decided to call for female officers to conduct a strip search
• the call handler who didn't immediately think there was something wrong with sending officers to a school for a strip search
• the female officers who conducted the search
• the teachers who stood outside
• all the other teachers who would have seen police at the school and not queried why child q did not have her parents with her
• the school for not having very clear protocols about how to treat children if there is any need for police to be involved

And then anyone even tangentially involved that didn't hear about a child being intimately strip searched at a fucking school and instantly go wtaf.

This is absolutely disgraceful.
Police and teachers should be fired. That poor girl. I cannot stop thinking about her.

@purpleboy definitely. From what I hear and despite some of the vitriol she receives she is allegedly a proactive MP for Hackney North. I would also consider emailing whoever is is the Minister for Safeguarding or children….I know that Jess Phillips MP is the shadow minister. I agree, definitely behind Diane and every other MP who wants answers on this case and any case where someone has been violated so appallingly. After Sarah Everard, Sabina Nessa, Nicole Smallman, Bibaa Henry and others, I swear the Met Police are rotten to the core.

After Sarah Everard, Sabina Nessa, Nicole Smallman, Bibaa Henry and others, I swear the Met Police are rotten to the core.

It really does seem that way. How can the adults in question have thought this was ok?

What do the Met have to do to be held to account? Is there anything which will be deemed to be “enough”?

@HermioneWeasley

What do the Met have to do to be held to account? Is there anything which will be deemed to be “enough”?

Apparently not.

@HermioneWeasley

What do the Met have to do to be held to account? Is there anything which will be deemed to be “enough”?

Who fucking knows. Its no longer enough to be held to account, it nears to be shut down and started again. All officers on an immediate "1 strike and you're out" probation.

Utterly disgusting
Everything @feministbadger said above

All of those people are responsible and absolutely should lose their jobs, teachers included.

This child was effectively sexually assaulted in her safe haven of school. If this is what school safeguarding is I’m appalled. She could have smelled like that because someone she sat beside on the bus smoked or at home but they immediately assumed she was a criminal instead of trying to delicately work out if she needed help.

How anyone can expect her to go back and complete her exams is beyond me. This will affect her future forever.
Unfortunately I expect there will just be more and more police complaint cases like this where women and girls are concerned

Can the teachers who stood by also have their registration suspended - given that their excuses to the inquiry team were that they didn't know anything about laws and safeguarding of vulnerable children?

This is absolutely sickening and appalling in equal measure.
That poor girl. How the hell will she ever even begin to recover from it!
Can anyone of us here, as grown women, imagine being put through that humiliating ordeal, much less if you were that poor girls age!
Her poor mother too, having to deal with her daughter's ordeal. Horrendous.
Each and every person involved in this should hang their heads in shame and lose their jobs.
The met, and many coppers aren't fit for purpose.
Despicable behaviour by all concerned.

@endofthelinefinally

The Met are absolutely rotten to the core. So corrupt. It has been the same for decades. They do not care because they can do what they like.

You are allowed to call them institutionally corrupt as the report into the murder of Daniel Morgan gave the force that label. Dick was personally involved in obstructing the investigation.

Heartbreaking. I cannot believe that not a single person involved has been disciplined.

The child was victimised by teachers singling her out and the review goes into detail to explain that this appalling cascade of failures in safeguarding a child happened because of racism. I'm gobsmacked at the repeated attempts on this thread to question this verdict or throw doubt on it.

Even if you object to generalisations about racism, this was a long and detailed review of an individual case with the reviewers coming to this conclusion from a lot more information than what was published (as the review states). How can you honestly think you know better?

There was no justification for the strip search whatsoever. The guidelines don't just state that this is only warranted where Class A drugs are involved, of which there was no suspicion here, the review also highlights that:

Searches involving exposure of intimate parts of the body must not be conducted as a routine extension of a less thorough search, simply because nothing is found in the course of the initial search.

So there was no grounds for a strip search arising from what the child was accused of carrying. There was in my opinion also no grounds from the previous incident - and I don't even understand how they can get away with calling it an incident as the child was then also searched and nothing was found on her. Since when is being groundlessly suspected once before and knowing a kid who did use a drug grounds enough to search you?

And then after willingly allowing her possessions to be searched which found nothing, there was no justification to move onto a strip search anyway just because nothing was found.

Which involved more violations: Not calling supervisors for permission. Not consulting with an appropriate adult, not registering informed consent from the child to search her without an appropriate adult (police officers claimed "she indicated" "she seemed" - that's an admission they did not get explicit consent). Not carried out by qualified person. Not carried out in appropriate location.

Refusing to let the girl use the toilet afterwards is an incomprehensible cruelty heaped upon the cruel treatment she received.

And this child did nothing wrong - she requested her mother be notified several times, she protested her innocence but allowed her possessions to be searched. She complied with the police and cannot be expected to know that what she was subjected to was in violation of school safeguarding standards and police protocol.

I'm heartbroken for her and her family and beyond disgusted with the adults involved.

And how fucking cowardly to send her home alone in a taxi.

I honestly cannot believe how broken, corrupt, criminal and utterly lawless the Met have been shown to be.

I am, and my family are very blessed historically, but I am absolutely chilled to my bone to read that the Met are so institutionally racist, to such an extend, that they will sexually assault a child, in a school, in broad daylight, with two teachers and a nurse outside.

England is truly, truly fxxked as a country.

Can anyone share a letter that they used to complain? Be good if we can use it.

This was a sexual assault on a child by policewomen aided and abetted by teachers. Every adult involved should be charged with child sexual assault and the school needs closing down. As soon as the name of the schools known every parent will want their child removed anyway. I’d feel sick to know people capable of this level of disgusting behaviour were teaching my child.

Poor girl. I hope she gets the justice she deserves and can rebuild her life and trust in others.

To complain

Go to Met police site, you can click on making a complaint

I included link to newspaper article and a brief summary. It then asks if you are complaining about a Met officer and I said yes. I had to leave blank the parts where it asks for names etc but that was no problem

It says what would you like Met to do and I clicked criminal investigation etc

It takes your details - name, address, email and phone number also

It took about 5 mins

I think it can only be of some help if there were lots of complaints. Horrified that no one has been punished for assaulting this poor teenager, that they are all still working.

Since when is being groundlessly suspected once before and knowing a kid who did use a drug grounds enough to search you?

Yep. What 15 year old doesn't know someone who does weed? And it's worse than cigarette smoke. You just need to be jammed up against someone on the tube who smokes, and your own hair and clothes stink.

Just had the below response back. I would encourage people to still complain although it will not be registered as a public complaint.

Thank you for contacting us in relation to school girl stop and searched.

We are sorry to learn of your dissatisfaction and of any frustration that this may have caused you.

When complaints are received, one of the first things we do is to consider how they should be handled. We refer to legislation that governs police complaints and consider whether you:

• Witnessed the incident – for example, you were present when an incident took place or were close enough to see or hear the incident.

• Were directly affected by the behaviour of our police officers, special constables, members of police staff, volunteers or contractors.

• Have been adversely affected by an incident – this means that the actions of the police have indirectly affected you.(for example you have suffered any form of loss, damage, distress or inconvenience as a result of the matter complained about).

• Are acting on behalf of someone in any of the people listed above – for example, a family member, friend, legal representative or any other person of their choosing. You must have their written permission unless you are the parent or guardian of a child and wish to complain on their behalf.

If you have watched the incident on television or social media, you won’t be regarded as a witness or adversely effected.

Unfortunately, we are not able to record your concerns as a public complaint because you do not fall into one of the categories listed above. We will however consider if there are any lessons that can be learnt.

We understand that the outcome of your complaint to us may not be to your satisfaction, but we would like to thank for taking the time to raise your concerns.

For further information, please see:

The IOPC Statutory guidance at www.policeconduct.gov.uk
The Police Reform Act 2002 (amended 2020) at www.legislation.gov.uk

Thank you again for taking the time to contact us.

I'm going through a very sad time in my family at the moment and due to events in Ukraine, the news has been even more grim than usual so I've been on a media blackout and not tuning in beyond highlight grazing.

So I'm only just learning of this now.

I cannot put into words how sickened I am. I feel like crying. The humiliation that child suffered. The utter humiliation. She'll never get over it, because it was sanctioned abuse by everyone in authority. Everyone she should gave been able to trust.

It's like something from the pre-civil rights era.

To be honest, I am somewhat surprised something this bad ocurred in the UK. I thought safeguarding protocols were pretty strong in terms of procedure.

We all need to write to our local MPs about this.

This happened 2 years ago, and they think they can just write it off with a review saying that racism was a factor.

It's not enough and now is the time now it's of public interest to get action and justice for this child.

As a black woman, like others on here, I was not shocked by this unfortunately.

My heart still breaks for her.

@DysonSphere

I'm going through a very sad time in my family at the moment and due to events in Ukraine, the news has been even more grim than usual so I've been on a media blackout and not tuning in beyond highlight grazing.

So I'm only just learning of this now.

I cannot put into words how sickened I am. I feel like crying. The humiliation that child suffered. The utter humiliation. She'll never get over it, because it was sanctioned abuse by everyone in authority. Everyone she should gave been able to trust.

It's like something from the pre-civil rights era.

To be honest, I am somewhat surprised something this bad ocurred in the UK. I thought safeguarding protocols were pretty strong in terms of procedure.

It doesn't matter how strong they are when people in authority want to ignore them.

This is just awful and horrible. That poor kid. I was so shocked when I heard about it and I didn't realise something like this could happen in the UK. Sheltered life, maybe?

And to think it could be something as innocent as her walking past someone who had been using cannabis, or sitting next to them on public transport! But actually even IF she'd been in possession of cannabis, the intimate search was wholly out of proportion and a human rights violation, surely? What the fuck were the school thinking?

The girl and her family need huge compensation, and heads need to roll at the Met and the school. Not holding my breath though....

The Met is really determined to make sure the r public don’t trust them.

In one year we have a met office kidnapping, raping and murdering a young woman. Multiple Met officers accused of rape, Met officers snapping pics of murdered women and sharing them in a WhatsApp group and making jokes.

Then a child being stripped searched at school. When is enough enough?