Maxie Allen and Rosalind Levine arrested - The vindictiveness of the school and police overreach

[Everanewbie]

AIBU to worry that this type of incident seems to be happening more and more? To me, there are several concerning aspects to this story. Here is a link if you aren't yet aware.

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/mar/29/parents-arrested-by-hertfordshire-police-for-complaining-about-daughters-school

Firstly, the apparent opaqueness of a public organisation and attempts to shut down private conversation and the vindictiveness the school has shown in attempting to silence this couple.

Secondly, the treatment of the pupil whereby she is being dropped off an escorted into school, and inability to discuss he disability and SEN with teachers, leading to multiple emails that were ultimately used against the couple.

And thirdly, WTF are the police doing? 6 Officers to arrest a meek professional couple, in front of their daughter. Holding them in a cell for 11 hours? Why are the police not dismissing this out of hand? I have always tried to be a supporter of the police, but how can reasonable people continue to accept this when they wont attend a burglary or detain shoplifters, but turn up in force for a middle class couple who called a governor a control freak in a private conversation?

I wasn't even slightly surprised by this and I think it happens far more than is reported.

In my experience, schools which don't want an open narrative are usually the worst imaginable.

My DD and DS were both violently bullied whilst at primary school, which was an academy run by the diocese of Oxford. I begged the school leadership to intervene but received excuse after excuse. They also failed to report to the police under prevent. They told me and my DH we were racist and I was slagged to death to volunteer PTA parents by the headmistress.

It became a witch hunt against us, meanwhile, my DD especially was coming home covered head to toe in bruises and vomiting at the idea of attending school.

They made her out to be the issue, making her see a child psychologist who told her that Mummy and Daddy are making her sad and the boys involved (of which there was 6, all twice her size) were being mean as she annoyed them. Lovely bit of victim shaming.

The final straw was DS being viciously punched to the ground at pick up time in front of me and several other shocked parents as he went past to meet DD from her classroom door. I will never forget the yelp of pain as he hit the floor. The boy involved - who I had been told was not asked to apologise as "in his culture boys and men don't say sorry" smirked. Teachers saw this and told me off for getting upset.

I was then ordered to a meeting and told because I had begged a teacher, through tears, to intervene, that this was "aggressive" and "abusive" towards staff and i would need to collect by arrangement after school. I was then told if I didn't like it I could remove my children.

In the end I did so and I informed the police regards the terror related threats spoken by the two ringleaders and how one of their fathers had attended school and intimidated myself and another parent. They took it under prevent and raided three homes at 5am. They also put three boys on CPO and they contacted school to advise they had failed to follow procedure.

We did ask for a meeting to complain but they refused, and slagged us to death to their new school at the time- they were horrified by the records and said they couldn't understand why my children were blamed.

Schools now can do as they wish, there is currently a secondary in Reading where if a parent asks for clarity on a sanction for a minor issue, they are sent a banning notice.

What has being middle class got to do with it?

Does being middle class absolve people of any wrong doing?

No, of course not. Is that what you take from this story? The point is, that they are a non aggressive couple with no history of criminality, let alone violence and a police operation like this was not only unnecessary, but an egregious waste of public resources.

@WillimNot thank you for taking the time to share this. It is absolutely horrific. As traumatic as this incident with these parents, yours is ten times worse. As many parents will identify, I would much rather take 11 hours in a cell than what happened to you family. I hope you are all able to find happiness at the new school, and the perpetrators and school are one day held accountable.

You are the one that mentioned them being middle class. I don't think that their perceived class is relevant. Obviously you do.

The police have been utterly shamed here / only caught out because they tried to bully a Times Reporter - this would never have come to light otherwise.
6 police officers!

I was absolutely disgusted for them too, apparently one of the family thought something awful had happened due to the police being outside. One of their children was also present and was left very upset.
I hope his position can shed light on incidents like this, these thuggish, ignorant school leaders need to be held accountable.

How about engage with the right and wrongs of the issue at hand rather picking apart my language?

Oh my goodness. That is appalling. I hope things are going well for your family now.

There's a massive thread on this already.

agree op - Andrew Gold did an interview with the Dad involved on his podcast/you Tube channel Heretics.

It’s genuinely shocking the reaction from the school to some fairly mild criticism in a private whatsapp group. Further there’s no doubt their behaviour in banning the parents from the school for no good reason (because they criticised the board for appointing the deputy head as head teacher instead of having a proper external process) has the potential to be harmful to their child (who has SEN and epilepsy). Absolutely appalling behaviour from police and school imo.

https://youtube.com/@andrewgoldheretics?si=8nkF0IScTWy50q2Q

Is that the one by the teachers union poster?

Massive discussion on the same topic, might be useful.

This is absolutely horrific.

Gobby arsehole parent.. harasses staff with multiple emails, harasses staff on premises, and harasses staff via Whatapp - and is then shocked when he is reported.

Entitled is more of a suitable label.

I bet the local high school can’t wait for his applications to turn up.

That is not what I took from the story and the interview with Maxie on Heretics. What I took from it was that the governors had not followed the proper process in recruiting a new head, and they acted petulantly and obstructively. If they had nothing to hide, why were they so obstructive?

The messages he sent were in a private whatsapp group, and were very mild.

Even if you think this couple were busy bodies, harassment threshold is not met by asking awkward questions, and dealing with matters relating to your disabled daughter on the SEN spectrum via email because that was the only communication method open to them thanks to the school.

Even so, 6 coppers?

Agree

That was posted before it came out that the local elected PCC ordered a review into the polices involvement.. and made it quite clear he thinks it should never have been a police matter in the first place.

That thread was largely people slagging off the parents and saying they deserved it when i was reading.

What particular 'offence' do you think they deserved to be arrested for? I do feel that there is a degree of busy body about him, but that is not a crime.

I think that my autistic dd is being picked on by a verbal child (she is non verbal) and her school is covering it up

I have kept her home today as she was so upset yesterday.

I don't trust them at all, and I thought I was mad. Reading your story has helped me realise that schools really are not to be trusted.

I hope that your children are being treated better now at their new school? 💕

Perhaps this is likely to be associated with the Academy system where heads might be business people and never taught a class in their lives. Finance is everything.
The heads I remember when I was teaching had all been teachers who put the children’s well being at the heart of the school. The ethos of the school permeates down and these antics would have been unheard of then.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c9dj1zlvxglo

@WillimNot shocking but also shocking you made children go to school who were vomiting in fear. One violent incident and they shouldn't have gone back to a dangerous situation.

I actually know this couple. Not going to say much in case it's too outing, but they are lovely, altruistic people who do a huge amount for charity and their local community and frankly I couldn't imagine a couple less deserving of the treatment they received. They are also not the sort of people who will turn a blind eye if they think injustice is being done or (as with the school recruitment) due process is not being followed. Maxie Allen is or was a local councillor and cares deeply about things being done properly and openly. If that makes him a 'busybody' then I think he'd accept the label. But they absolutely did nothing wrong and the school's characterising legitimate concerns about governance as "harassment" is simply dishonest.

He didn’t harass anyone, certainly not staff. He initially raised the issue of deputy head being given the job of head instead of an external recruitment process with the school governors. He was banned from the school then and not allowed to talk to teachers at all despite having a vulnerable SEN child with medical needs. Hence why there are so many emails- most are just about the child. He did make a perfectly polite complaint via the schools complaint system too.

The staff were not on the whatsapp - it was a private parents group. Neither of the parents harassed anyone yet the police arrested them and held them in a cell for hours.

All they did was criticize a public authority that should be accountable to them and all of us. Why should they be arrested for that? You’ve criticized them and made false accusations- is it ok if the police turn up and arrest you? Or should we all be entitled to our opinions.