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.

My children are mixed race and the thought of my daughter being strip searched at school, having her dignify and privacy stomped on in a place she should feel safe fills me with rage! Im so angry (and upset) for this girl.

Wtf were these officers doing?! Why the f were her teachers not protecting her and objecting? Even if she did have cannabis ot wasnt worth this!

The girl needs to sue, I usually roll by eyes when people want damages for their treatment by the police but damm right she deserves it.

@ParsleySageRosemary

If this really happened it's ridiculous. I work in schools where cannabis unfortunately is an issue: I am not aware that strip searching is routine.

WTF do you mean if this really happened...? Of course it really happened, that's why this thread exists.

Cool it, there's no need is there.

I am rather startled by this and wondering what the full story is. It is not normal. If it's been purely driven by racism, then yes, the met should have the book thrown at them.
Did you even bother reading the article?

It really is quite something that even when a poster provides documentation from a review that clearly evidences that race is a factor, some MN posters will stand firm in their denial of racism. How embarrassing to admit that your understanding of the world we live in is so incredibly narrow.

I'm appalled but not at all surprised.

I was strip searched, naked, by the police at a similar age. Possibly even a bit younger.

(I'm not a person of colour)

In the famous Milgram study the majority people electrocuted other innocent people (actually actors) to life threatening levels because they were told to by an authority figure. Even higher ‘compliance’ was found if the environment was more prestigious or official.
I think the command and control nature of these schools/academies and the erosion of personal freedom probably contributed to the teachers blindly accepting what the police said and of course to the bizarre decision to call the police in the first place.

@Makeitsoso

I remember learning about this in college. I know I can’t declare exactly how I would react in this situation but I really hope I’d realise this was unacceptable and do something to stop it.

The girl and her parents say it happened.
The safeguarding review said it happened.
The Met say it happened.

(Certain) mumsnetters - “did it really happen?”

I really wish it hadn’t given the girls race as I don’t believe any of these idiot posters would be minimising or questioning it if they thought it was a white girl.

I hope this never happens to them or their daughters.

@ParsleySageRosemary @JennyHogon

More racist apologists enter chat

Of course it happened and of course it was racist. How many police officers have been caught taking selfies with dead white women? How many reports of white girls getting strip searched in schools have you come across? The police weren’t even called the times kids were suspected of having drugs during my time teaching (99% white and white students suspected of having drugs)

WTAF?

[quote Testingprof]**@ParsleySageRosemary* @JennyHogon*

More racist apologists enter chat

Of course it happened and of course it was racist. How many police officers have been caught taking selfies with dead white women? How many reports of white girls getting strip searched in schools have you come across? The police weren’t even called the times kids were suspected of having drugs during my time teaching (99% white and white students suspected of having drugs)[/quote]
Oh give over. Questioning things doesn't make you a racist apologist.

Appalling, that poor girl.
I have always supported the Police but my two boys, both uni students, were followed home by two Police women a couple of years ago, after I made them walk the dog in the dark (the lazy buggers had been promising all day ).
The two officers asked them who they were, why they were on a country lane (err.....they're walking their dog) then asked them to go home so they could check they lived where they said they did, and drove behind them.
I opened the door to two officers on the drive wondering what the hell had happened.

My lads are mixed race.

Police were VERY apologetic but said they'd never seen my sons around here before (they've lived in this village their entire lives) and they looked suspicious. Said there had been a spate of crime.
The last crime here was a burglary in 1996.

I'm sure they made racist assumptions that night. I'm just glad that my boys remained calm and didn't argue with them.

I found out the hard way (through my role in a school) that according to legislation, schools don't have to inform parents if they "have reason to believe" that a child needs to be searched by the police. I don't know what the law is regarding the police and strip searching minors (i assume they should have an appropriate adult but very little surprises me these days so I could be wrong) but the fact that the school requested the search and didn't inform the parents does not shock me in the slightest. It's an appalling practice and it needs to be changed.

I'm hoping there'll be some sort of fundraiser for her family to hire the best legal team in the land. I would happily donate.

This so disgusting. The poor girl, I can't imagine how terrifying and humiliating this ordeal was for her. Every adult involved should be thoroughly ashamed and should be sacked. The Met Police are an absolute disgrace.

The fact that a school invited the police in to come and treat a pupil like this is beyond words. Where’s the safeguarding?

I'm (unfortunately) not surprised that it happened, btw. I'm only questioning the racist element. One of my own children had a horrendous experience, but because she is white, it goes below the radar.

@WeDontTalkAboutBrunoNoNoNo

It really is quite something that even when a poster provides documentation from a review that clearly evidences that race is a factor, some MN posters will stand firm in their denial of racism. How embarrassing to admit that your understanding of the world we live in is so incredibly narrow.

Doesn’t it show how pervasive racism is and how it isn’t enough to not simply be not racist though? To me it highlights it, these people are so brazen to say this didn’t happen because they ‘know’ they won’t really be called out on their own racist views.

I’m fed up of the view that unless you are called the N word or black prefaces an insult it isn’t racism. Racism is so much worse and quieter than that, it’s being ignored while all of your white colleagues are greeted. Its being told your uppity. It’s being told you don’t sound (enter ethnicity). It’s being told your smart for (enter ethnicity). Its being asked where are you really from. It’s being told time and time again racism doesn’t exist while all of the above happens.

Mumsnet doesn’t help as it allows clearly dogwhistle posts to stand ‘in the spirit of discussion’.

@LakieLady

Wtf is it with the Met? Why can't they just behave appropriately?

This is a shocking way to treat a child.

And the school and the teachers and the nurse obviously. Or are they ok?

@JennyHogon

I'm (unfortunately) not surprised that it happened, btw. I'm only questioning the racist element. One of my own children had a horrendous experience, but because she is white, it goes below the radar.

Indeed.

As I said above I was strip searched as a child of a similar age, by police, with no appropriate adult present. I'm not a person of colour.

Whilst I respect the findings in this particular case, it's not something that only happens to people / children of colour.

@BeingATwatItsABingThing

*In the famous Milgram study the majority people electrocuted other innocent people (actually actors) to life threatening levels because they were told to by an authority figure. Even higher ‘compliance’ was found if the environment was more prestigious or official. I think the command and control nature of these schools/academies and the erosion of personal freedom probably contributed to the teachers blindly accepting what the police said and of course to the bizarre decision to call the police in the first place.*

@Makeitsoso

I remember learning about this in college. I know I can’t declare exactly how I would react in this situation but I really hope I’d realise this was unacceptable and do something to stop it.

Me too. But if we’re right we are in the minority.

2 teachers thought they smelled weed on this girl so they called the police.

She didnt have weed on her and I dont see this as grounds for calling police anyway. But those teachers knew very well that calling the police on a Black child could result in devastating consequences for her.

But that the school found it acceptable that 2 police officers could come into the school, strip a girl completely naked when they also knew she was menstruating, and without a responsible adult present, is a damning indictment of the racism assault and adultification Black girls experience all the time.

How is it that the school didnt even think to themselves that a responsible adult and/or the child's parents, needed to be in that room?

The police officers who found it appropriate to carry out this sexual assault are abhorrent. They asked her to remove her sanitary towel, then put hands inside her.

I like Hackney Council's strongly worded response to this outrage in terms of safeguarding concerns and review. But this will likely be kicked into the long grass of 'lessons will be learned', never to be heard of again. The school and the police will get away with this.

Adultification of Black girls is a known issue; anyone with awareness of or has no will to understand, isnt truly interested in the rights of girls and women.

@babywalker56 very well said but at times its just not worth explaining. Not in these times.

The person that's mostly publicising this is a White man. I knew nothing about it until he hifhlighted and opined on this. Then I looked into it further.

He understands and has explained the issues and dangers clearly and concisely, not least in terms of the inhumanity of it.

You don't have to be Black to know right from wrong in situations such as this.

I know I can’t declare exactly how I would react in this situation but I really hope I’d realise this was unacceptable and do something to stop it.

In the review, the teachers' accounts of why they didn't intervene are very dispiriting. Section 5.28:

As a learning point, this has been fully accepted by the school staff involved. Many reflected their sadness and disappointment at what Child Q had experienced, with comments made as part of the school’s Stage 2 investigation report echoing these feelings: [The comments included here are worth reading.]

This leads to section 5.39

In terms of the strip search of Child Q, practice that day appears to have been far too weighted towards a criminal justice response. This may be explained in part by the deference of school staff to the police. It might relate to the relative junior police staff involved or the fact that officers didn’t seek the advice of their supervisor. It might also relate to elements of disproportionality and racism leading those involved to make certain assumptions about Child Q and what response was required.

I’ve worked in schools where cannabis is an issue, where students sometimes smelled of cannabis and certain students were known to be caught up in county lines. Not once did this result in a strip search at school.

It’s horrifying to think that there are police officers who think this is in any way okay. Sadly, after other stories we’ve seen from the Met, it hardly surprises me any more.