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?

Also I’m very confused because is there any rule against a parent sending an email at 7pm given that most parents work and don’t get home until maybe 6 or 7? Obviously if it said you must reply to me immediately that would be different, but why can’t emails be sent when a parent returns home?

It’s what was noted on the document recording problems as the issue with the email. They agreed to the Holocaust survivors event and it seems to have been a success so I’m not sure why you’re imagining other issues unless you want the school to be antisemitic?

It’s permissible for any child to be removed from Christian worship. The school really should have known that, but seeking advice on the legality of removing a child from Christian worship also doesn’t sound antisemitic when the stated problem was that they didn’t want it to open the floodgates to other parents removing their children.

If you want to suggest that I might be overlooking antisemitism, I am generally quite hot on challenging it (you can check my posting history) but I’m not seeing it as an automatic conclusion on the part of the school here based on the evidence given.

@noblegiraffe if you look at the posts I have posted I have not used that adjective to have described the school.

Also you still don’t know what actually happened here.

Multiple MPs and past office holders have expressed concern. I am genuinely shocked by the line of questioning as I’m sure all right thinking people will be.

My thoughts are with this poor mother. A SEND parent who was hauled to a police station and wrongfully arrested in front of her three year old.

I’ve said all along they shouldn’t be arrested.

I don’t know what the line of questioning was exactly, but the reason that the emails were on the document appears to he because they were among other correspondence that was collated to evidence a claim of harassment and unreasonable communication.

The HMD email was included in a file named “Timeline” that the school sent to the police to evidence the harassment the school was allegedly experiencing.

There was no need to include that email.

Take anti-semitism out of it, why would the school include an entirely reasonable email sent at a reasonable time (I’ve sent things to school at 1am!) regarding an event that went positively in a file to evidence harassment?

If the school’s claims were legitimate and reasonable, how could anyone have read the interaction and been so fearful that it was flagged and used to show unreasonable behaviour?

Ii also thought it interesting the school used the word “disgusted” to describe the mum’s reaction to her daughter taking part in an Easter celebration. That’s a very strong, emotive adjective that, in my opinion, shows a lack of credibility and professionalism in the person making the claims.

That anybody is still supporting the school at this stage is laughable.

Why do you assume that disgust was the school’s word and not the mother’s? I’ve read emails from parents expressing their disgust at various things.

I think people who aren’t from minority religious groups would be surprised how often asking to exercise basic religious freedoms we are all entitled to in the UK is an issue for people. There is of course a lot of unconscious prejudice and discomfort with people who are different.

In which case it wouldn’t matter if they wanted to remove their child from the assembly because they were Jewish. Muslim, atheist or whatever. The problem was removing the child for any reason, not the Jewish bit.