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?

Police didn't say that but hey keep on pretending they did. Police didn't say either way if they had or not. Sadly you do not understand the basics.

Substantiate what? The parents admitted it.

Substantiate what? The parents admitted it.

Sorry, could you please point out in which alternative universe they've confessed to your charges of harassment and defamation, please.

@SinnerBoy @TheCastleDoesNotReply I'm just going to stop engaging with Whippy. They're not brining any interesting counter arguments to the table and just writing that we're all "crying" that we can't take their "debate" over and over again.

They also keep saying and /or implying things then saying "where did I say that?" When posters then quote, they evade and say they can believe what they want.

For what it's worth, when the story first broke, my first thought was I bet these parents have done something really awful (we all know this does happen), but as soon as the evidence was released it was abundantly clear they had, in fact done nothing. Like I said upthread I know schools do act like this because one of mine sent out a letter to all parents attempting to ban them from talking to each other. Delusional and dangerous.

I have actually worked in lots and lots of schools and they do not all have 'legal teams' like Whippy emphatically stated more than once. Some schools also behave extremely badly. It has been completely eye opening, the things I have heard and seen I will never forget.

How can you be almost categorical on this? You can have a theory that the parents were more unpleasant than they are saying, but how can you be sure? And judging by the interviews last week, it wasn’t the fact that the deputy was appointed as interim head, it was the fact that he was interim, seemingly indefinitely, for so long without any progress in recruitment. I think he was owed an explanation.

I didn't say that they confessed to charges as no charges were brought. They gloated about what they were doing to the staff member so thus admitting they were harassing them.

No they weren't admitting to harassing the teacher, they were admitting to taking the piss out of a stuffy control freak. If they'd harassed him, they'd have been charged.

Nowhere, never did they say that they were harassing him.

@whippy1981 what you call harassment, another may call persistence. I am no legal expert but I would call harassment bothering teachers at home or on their way to work. Not emails and calls to work email addresses and numbers during working hours, however numerous.

The emails were about swimming! Nothing to do with name calling.

Nope this is what comes before the control freak comment! Given that the control freak comment was made after the complaint from school...and they gloated about things that came before that one would wonder why they only shared the control freak comment - possibly to pretend that is the only one that was said however the timeline doesn't add up!

If it met the legal definition of harassment then they in fact did harass.

Should the school ignore any complains about bullying now and just say it isn't an issue - not going to sort it as communications online can't hurt someone?

This irony! ha!

There is a regulatory body - the TRA. The parents have a right to report this person to the police if they think this is a false accusation. They haven't done so.

They can report to the TRA if they consider this as being misconduct. They haven't.

They did none of what they could've done.

Everybody knows the TRA and OFSTED are useless. That’s why they need replacing with a proper regulator and professional body which will immediately suspend staff pending investigation when misconduct is reported, then strip them of their professional qualifications and ban them from working in the sector if the misconduct is substantiated, as well as levying sufficiently large fines to provide a significant financial disincentive for illegal behaviour on the school and Local Authority in question. This would be in line with how other sectors such as law, finance and medicine are regulated, and is clearly required to stop schools behaving as though they can break the law with impunity because there is no effective regulatory oversight and it is left up to individual parents to enforce the law rather than the regulator and professional body doing so.

I shalln’t respond to you again because - as other posters have noted - it is a waste of time trying to reason with somebody who refuses to consider things objectively and has demonstrated such a lack of understanding of the relevant legal requirements, yet inexplicably remains convinced that they’re correct regardless of all of the evidence proving that they are not.

If it met the legal definition of harassment then they in fact did harass.

As you know perfectly well, it didn't meet the criteria and they absolutely did not harass the acting head. Those are plain facts.

Which of course the parents are legally within their rights to report them. If there is evidence the teachers did this then that would happen. If not and the evidence showed they acted based on what they were subjected to then that could also support more harassment.

The parents haven't reported them to either the TRA or the police. I would be wondering why their first port of call was the media and not to get justice if they were wronged. They do not seem in any sort of urgency to get justice just their faces in the paper. Now I would ask why that is? They complained to the police about how it was handled but never made a report about the teacher which they were well within their right to do so should they have evidence.

By all means respond to those who do not consider things objectively and who demonstrate a lack of understanding. You seem to be in that camp.

Not convinced either nor have I said I am convinced they are correct - you seem to not be objective about the fact that I have used the word 'if' throughout and have said I need more information - the missing information the parents have omitted.

The irony! ha!

I do not know nor do you as no one has said either way. The fact that they gloated about doing something to the teacher suggests there is evidence it happened.

I was raped and it was NFA'd by the CPS. The rape still happened despite on paper the police have said NFA. It could've happened and be NFA'd.

If they feel it was a false allegation then they legally can report that. They haven't. They have contacted the police and complained about how it was handled but not reported the teacher for false allegation just spent the time contacting the media instead of seeking justice.

Surely they have evidence to show the police it was a false allegation so could easily get an arrest but are choosing not to for what reason?

Oh dear, that poster now appears to have had my response to you deleted at the behest of that irrational poster.

Ironically showing precisely the behaviour that the article is about, trying to censor other people’s perfectly reasonable discussions.

I've not had any post deleted based on censoring discussions. Sorry wrong again!

I've said on this thread numerous times (which has been ignored) that everyone is entitled to their opinion and that it isn't wrong to share those opinions either.

Posts get deleted when they breach the rules on here and someone complains that they breach the rules. Disagreeing with me is not breaching the rules.

whippy1981 · Today 11:39

Everything you write flies in the face of the facts. The Police had access to all of the messages and emails and stated that they couldn't find anything at all of a harassing nature.

You're making this up as you go. Are you related to Donald Trump?

WillimNot 'In his culture men and boys don't say sorry?' I wonder which culture that would be? I'm lost for words.

Really? I have no idea what’s got into the Mumsnet moderators but it’s completely absurd that they’ve deleted my comments which contained nothing offensive whatsoever, and simply asked the poster who I and others had already said we no longer wished to engage with to stop replying to my posts. No idea what petty person is reporting my posts asking for them to be deleted, either, how pathetic.

There’s been some overly-zealous/regressive moderation on a few threads today, including the one about the tribunal into the blackball pool ladies’ competition.

Whippy is screenshotting her replies and posting them when they get deleted despite saying earlier "Posts get deleted when they breach the rules on here and someone complains that they breach the rules. Disagreeing with me is not breaching the rules." Irony at it's finest.