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Original poster

"DfE told to overhaul guidance after strip search of schoolgirl"

47 replies

LazyYogi · 21/03/2022 07:51

"DfE told to overhaul guidance after strip search of schoolgirl" schoolsweek.co.uk/dfe-must-urgently-overhaul-guidance-after-disturbing-strip-search-of-black-schoolgirl/

This is horrible. The school say they put their trust in the law but now realise that was a mistake! The Met police seem to be at the root of more and more negative stories.

AIBU to think that the public and thus teachers should be able to trust the police to also be following safeguarding practices and consider children as people first rather than criminals? I appreciate this article is saying that the law and guidance was followed but that it is outdated. Doesn't seem like anyone considered the poor girl as a person nor had any compassion.

The fact the girl was black is a whole other level of issue...

OP posts:
PhileasPhilby · 21/03/2022 08:05

I think it’s very unfair school are getting the blame when it was the police who took the action.

billy1966 · 21/03/2022 08:20

I think it is absolutely just the school are getting the blame.

They removed a child from an exam because of a smell.

Those teachers and nurse are an absolute disgrace and there is no excuse whatsoever that absolves them of the decision to interrupt her exam on a suspicion that would easily have waited until AFTER her exam had been taken.

It's also the school who made the decision not to contact her guardians.

The school and it's teachers/nurse are devoid of any moral decency if the policy is to remove a child from an exam for such a spurious reason.

If I was a teacher at that school I would be appalled and mortified to be associated with a school that would facilitate the sexual assault of a student, having removed her from an important exam on the pretext of a whiff of something.

The school deserves ever bit of approbation coming it's way.

TheWernethWife · 21/03/2022 08:23

billy1966

Totally agree with you

Gizacluethen · 21/03/2022 08:27

How fucking disgraceful. Honestly I think it's akin to sexual assault what the police did to her on the schools instruction and every single person who was involved needs holding accountable. I hope she's going to get some kind of support. I can't imagine how traumatising that would have been.

Who even strip searches a child without their parent or guardian present?! Like at the very least.

WhiteXmas21 · 21/03/2022 08:29

And another who agrees with @billy1966.

I think the school staff who were complicit should be held to account, and if that means losing their job so be it. They were the ones supposedly safe guarding the child at the time. They should be ashamed.

Momicrone · 21/03/2022 08:30

The school sounds awful

FloBot7 · 21/03/2022 08:32

I think the school are trying to use the Met as a scape goat. Both sides didn't just fail her, they were complicit in the sexual abuse of a minor. How could any parent feel safe leaving their child at that school unless something is done to stop them abusing their power?

Onionpatch · 21/03/2022 08:33

i think a school that interupts an exam on a smell and calls the police but not her parents is in the wrong so I dont think the police should have been there at all to put their trust in.

I have reached a point where i have seen so much evidence of racism and sexism in the force I have lost faith so I dont know that i would put trust in the police now. which is a shame as it is reasonable to assume if you call the police they will follow safeguarding guidelines and indeed a act professionally and proportionally.

Jellycatspyjamas · 21/03/2022 09:26

I appreciate this article is saying that the law and guidance was followed but that it is outdated. Doesn't seem like anyone considered the poor girl as a person nor had any compassion.

The guidance for the first, superficial, search by the school was followed, the guidance for the further search by the police wasn’t followed in a number of areas. The school also didn’t follow their usual process of contacting parents before contacting the police, allowed the child to be removed to a medical room and strip searched. Claiming they didn’t know the police would strip search her is no defence, they should have known, by asking clearly what the police process was. The school were responsible for then returning her to her exam, sending her home in a taxi and still not informing her parents. The school were also responsible for not having anyone act as an appropriate adult for the child and not checking her well-being after the fact.

The police and school are equally responsible for letting this child down.

Jellycatspyjamas · 21/03/2022 09:30

Both sides didn't just fail her, they were complicit in the sexual abuse of a minor.

The definition of sexual abuse generally involves the motive of sexual gratification on the part of the perpetrators, which wasn’t the case here. It was intimate in nature but not sexually motivated so I don’t think it can be labelled sexual assault/abuse. It’s awful enough in it’s own right.

Momicrone · 21/03/2022 09:34

I'm sure that's not how the victim would have felt at the time

AnyFucker · 21/03/2022 09:45

The guidance doesn’t need “overhauling” it is already in place.

For some reason, every person involved in this sorry episode chose to ignore it. Anyone at any point could have stood up and objected to what this girl was subjected to. All these people will have had extensive safeguarding training that first and foremost instills that protecting children is everyone’s responsibility

No excuses. Not forgetting either that these professionals mandatory training will also have included equality and diversity recognition. So wrong on many levels and every single person that stood by is culpable.

Jellycatspyjamas · 21/03/2022 09:48

I’m sure it’s not, but sexual assault has an emotive quality (for obvious reason) which risks overshadowing the awfulness of what happened here. She was subjected to an illegal intimate search, in a place that should have been safe, facilitated by people she should be able to trust. When we think about stop and search processes it’s easy to lose sight of where it can ultimately end and how incredibly traumatising it is - it’s bad enough in it’s own right without upping the ante.

In saying that, personally I’d like to see the professionals involved charged with sexual assault, because of the impact on the child, but I doubt that’ll happen because the motive wasn’t sexual.

winnieanddaisy · 21/03/2022 10:30

If you need to see a doctor you could ask for a female doctor if that's what you want . Tourists searched above their clothing can request it is done by a female officer .
Why on earth was such an intimate search done without her parent present , and why wasn't it done by female officers .
This is one of the worst things I have heard of in what is supposed to be a civilised country . Appalling.

Bunnycat101 · 21/03/2022 10:41

That is a horrid experience for that girl to have gone through. I bet the white male public school boys who have been caught with drugs haven’t been subject to a strip search. Did none of the adults involved think about this for more than a millisecond?

JoanOgden · 21/03/2022 10:43

@winnieanddaisy

If you need to see a doctor you could ask for a female doctor if that's what you want . Tourists searched above their clothing can request it is done by a female officer . Why on earth was such an intimate search done without her parent present , and why wasn't it done by female officers . This is one of the worst things I have heard of in what is supposed to be a civilised country . Appalling.
It was done by female officers (but still appalling of course)
TheWernethWife · 21/03/2022 12:11

WhiteXmas21

Just read a report in the London Evening Standard, the teacher has been sacked and rightly so in my opinion. I have three girls and am so outraged by the thought that this could happen to them.

MoonminMummy9 · 21/03/2022 12:15

Another one who agrees with @billy1966

All because of a "smell"

raspberryjamchicken · 21/03/2022 12:17

Good grief. I am on the safeguarding team at a primary school and I can't imagine how any staff member would even consider allowing this to happen. I think some secondary schools (my DC's included, unfortunately, are so focused on behaviour that they allow it to take or cede ce over everything else.

raspberryjamchicken · 21/03/2022 12:17

take precedence

billy1966 · 21/03/2022 12:27

@Jellycatspyjamas

Both sides didn't just fail her, they were complicit in the sexual abuse of a minor.

The definition of sexual abuse generally involves the motive of sexual gratification on the part of the perpetrators, which wasn’t the case here. It was intimate in nature but not sexually motivated so I don’t think it can be labelled sexual assault/abuse. It’s awful enough in it’s own right.

I think you are very wrong there.

They stripped searched a child and did an internal search.

They had NO business doing that.

IMO those two police officers sexually assaulted a child, while two teachers and a nurse stood guard outside.

I want to cry everytime I read what they did, and I have cried.
I doubt I'm alone in my reaction.

If one of my two teenager daughters came home and told me this had occurred in school I truly think I would lose my mind with anger.

We have discussed this several times over the past few days and simply can't get our minds around it.

The teachers/nurse were premeditated in their decision not to call her parents.

They were premeditated when they allowed a child alone with two police officers.

I hope everyone involved in this appalling episode is named and shamed.

FloBot7 · 21/03/2022 12:34

@Jellycatspyjamas

Both sides didn't just fail her, they were complicit in the sexual abuse of a minor.

The definition of sexual abuse generally involves the motive of sexual gratification on the part of the perpetrators, which wasn’t the case here. It was intimate in nature but not sexually motivated so I don’t think it can be labelled sexual assault/abuse. It’s awful enough in it’s own right.

We'll have to agree to disagree on that one. They humiliated her and probably took great pleasure in making her expose herself to put her in her place. If I were made to strip in front of adults at that age (and with no legal reason for it) it would feel incredibly sexual in nature, even if it happened now it would. There was no actual reason for it to have happened other than someone deciding to escalate the situation for their own gratification.
berlinbabylon · 21/03/2022 12:49

@PhileasPhilby

I think it’s very unfair school are getting the blame when it was the police who took the action.
I don't, I think the teachers were equally culpable and were given an easy ride by the review report.

There is no way they would have interrupted a teacher's pet white girl's exam because they thought they could smell weed (or cigarettes, come to that). Nor, in any world, would they have called the police.

Usernameinsponeeded · 21/03/2022 13:07

This just breaks my heart. The poor girl.

Horcruxe · 21/03/2022 13:11

@billy1966

I think it is absolutely just the school are getting the blame.

They removed a child from an exam because of a smell.

Those teachers and nurse are an absolute disgrace and there is no excuse whatsoever that absolves them of the decision to interrupt her exam on a suspicion that would easily have waited until AFTER her exam had been taken.

It's also the school who made the decision not to contact her guardians.

The school and it's teachers/nurse are devoid of any moral decency if the policy is to remove a child from an exam for such a spurious reason.

If I was a teacher at that school I would be appalled and mortified to be associated with a school that would facilitate the sexual assault of a student, having removed her from an important exam on the pretext of a whiff of something.

The school deserves ever bit of approbation coming it's way.

Agree