11 year old daughter fought at school, police now involved

[Marcbearpig]

Hello,

My daughter was involved in a fight at school wherein she was defending herself from a boy that was hitting her with a stick. She has retaliated and one of her peers has videoed it but obviously doesn't show her being hit with the stick.

We had a meeting with the parents and all involved were very cooperative and my daughter was aware that her actions had consequences and she was suspended from school. She returned and all was well in the world until we received a phone call from the police!!!

They want her to attend an interview, the officer has assured us it won't take long maybe 10 mins but has also stated that we have the right to have a solicitor present.

Is this normal? She's scared out of her mind over this and obviously the need for a solicitor has worried us as parents

OP- there is a lot of extremely bad advice on this thread, by people who may be well intentioned but are obviously not legally trained.

Most importantly, make sure you have a solicitor.

A duty solicitor can be arranged for you. The person who attends may not be a solicitor, but will be someone qualified to advise you at the police station. This is not something to be concerned about- many skilled and experienced police station representatives are not solicitors. Nearly all defence solicitors are part of the duty scheme.

You could find a solicitor yourself, although the person who attends may well not be a solicitor but will be legally trained to represent you, just as if they were appointed as duty solicitor.

If you do want a duty solicitor, let the police know now so that it can be an arranged without you having to wait.

I strongly suggest that you follow the advice of your legal advisor, rather than anyone here.

Good luck.

F

The boy is unlikely to admit he hit DD. It will become ‘he said, she said’.
His word against her word.
I wish you and Dd the best of luck. Was also a victim of bullying at school.

How are people not reading between the lines here? This has been posted in bullying - is that because she battered someone and someone got it on video? She’s been suspended - that’s how bad it was.

I wouldn’t put too much store by a suspension. That’s used far too easily.

my son was systematically bullied for years. One day after an attack by 3 students he ran, and scaled a fence to get away. A teacher tried to pull him off and he refused to come back.

The hitting boys got 24 hour suspensions, mine got 3 days for ignoring a teacher.

That’s the day we removed him from formal education.

Why did you allow her to be suspended for self defence and why aren’t you reporting the boy to the police ?

The obvious thing to do would be to (get the school to) ask peers to testify about the boy hitting her with a stick first?

Am I missing something – why hasn't this been done? It's either a massive oversight or that you know your narrative is shady (and I'm saying it could equally be either one, not necessarily the 2nd one)

I think you need to talk to the police by yourself first, and not let your daughter attend until you know the purpose of the meeting. It also gives you a chance to explain the background, and if necessary, make a complaint that your daughter was hit with a weapon by a larger boy.

1. Check with a solicitor - police seem one sided - put in a formal complaint with the police of assault by the boy on your daughter - also can you lodge a case against the parents having shared the videos of your daughter without consent? Check with solicitor if this is an option under UK law.

Ask someone you trust (not to tip the parents off) to screenshot / get evidence the video has been shared online by the parents.

I am NOT a lawyer - so check with solicitor but from Google it seems if the school (where it was filmed) is classed as "private property" not public property it infringes your right to private life
https://lawhive.co.uk/knowledge-hub/litigation/is-it-illegal-to-record-someone-without-their-consent-uk/

As per this Government website a school may be considered private property:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/controlling-access-to-school-premises/controlling-access-to-school-premises#:~:text=Schools%20are%20private%20property.,for%20appointments

I maybe clutching at straws here and nothing can be done legally about parents sharing videos - but it is a question to ask. Sorry to read about your daughter and wish you the best of luck.

Good Luck OP I hope it all works out with minimum stress.

I hope you manage to get somewhere by reporting the assault on your dd. The parents doing this are truly awful. Another boy brought up to think that violence against women and girls is ok. Way to minimise his behaviour: report his victim.

@thebear1
My younger sister was relentlessly bullied online and in person.
The people who harassed her sounded very much like you in your post.
One day, she walked home from school at lunch and hanged herself.
There is no “excuse” for making accusations against people you don’t know, will never meet and who have no effect on your life whatsoever.
We could all stand to be just a little bit more kind.

So are there witnesses ? any evidence that show her being provoked.
Was the provocation discussed at the parents meeting?
I do think you are minimising what she has done- regardless of the provocation that violence was enough for the family to call the police and the police to atke it seriously.
It does worry me that you saw a need to educate your child in violence and it sounds like more than simple self defence

What a horrible experience for your daughter to go through. Ask for the duty solicitor, don't pay for one. I would think about making your own complaint about the assult from the boy and the footage being shared. All of this is teaching him is he can hit who he likes and they don't have the right to defend themselves. Did the school punish him at all?
I hope this doesn't put your daughter off defending herself in the future.

"I do think you are minimising what she has done- regardless of the provocation that violence was enough for the family to call the police and the police to atke it seriously"

This. Most schools will put kids in internal suspension for a straightforward fight or perhaps exclude for a day if it's not the first offence. A 3 day suspension suggests there was more to it than op is letting on.

I also wonder why the provocation with a stick is not recorded . Was it in a CCTV blind spot?

Hi OP, police officer here.

The fact that the officer has asked whether you guys want a solicitor means that you're daughter is being invited in for a "voluntary" interview in order to give her account under caution. This will be because a report has been made and she has been listed as a suspect based on the information in that report. If you make your own report to police now it is possible that they will record a separate assault with her as the victim and the boy as the suspect but they will not be able to obtain her account for your report until they have interviewed her for the original as her account now has to be given under caution.

In terms of the interview process, it is a voluntary interview as at the moment they have no cause to arrest her. In order to arrest they have to suspect an offence has been committed (in this case, assault) and the arrest has to be necessary. Police need to get an account, under caution, from your daughter. If she does not attend a voluntary an arrest may then become necessary in order to obtain that account. I note mention of the Police National Computer further up the thread - arrests are recorded, voluntary attendances are not.

(Also hitting someone with a stick is not automatically ABH or GBH - if an injury is caused such as significant bruising, it's ABH. Anything less would be battery - think reddening to the skin, scratches or no marks at all. GBH is serious injury such as broken bones).

This is what I came to say, this is what you have needed the whole way through.

Was your daughter with friends, what made the kids start filming just as your daughter attacked.

Are the witnesses prepared to back your daughter up and give statements saying that the boy attacked first? If so get a list of names as a minimum.

its all very well saying it was self defence but you’re only allowed to take self defence so far. So if the boy has dropped the stick, was trying to run away, got attacked and was on the floor and continued to be punched and kicked then the self defence argument is harder to plead. Though your daughter can say she was still frightened and thought if he had the opportunity to get up he would attack her again. She definitely does not want to say anything along the lines of she was cross, so gave him a kicking to teach him a lesson (not saying she did). She needs to focus on saying she was scared for her life at all times.

id be tempted to consider putting in a counter complaint of assault against the boy. Surely the police would have to equally investigate that? So he would also be called for an interview.

I’m wondering about the video of the fight. Has it ended up being distributed or posted somewhere? I’m just thinking about things that may have prompted the boys parents to escalate this following the meeting at school.

@Marcbearpig I'd echo the advice of @mathanxiety & go in prepared with a solicitor. After our family's experience, I'd never agree to a 'voluntary' interview without one. Good luck - I feel sorry for your DD, this escalation is ridiculous.

I’ve worked in several schools and we regularly have the police/PCOs speak to the students after they’ve been physical.

Some people are surprised that we do it with our SEND students too.

But things never usually escalate legally, it is more about showing them how serious their actions are and to reduce the chances of it happening again.

Physically assaulting someone is a crime and there’s only so much protection the school can give.

If it were to happen in a couple of years time, one or both of them could be getting a jail sentence over it.

We’ve never had anyone get a solicitor as it’s always been more about nipping their actions in the bud.

Of course depending on how bad this fight was, there may be repercussions for them but I can’t see them being very extreme.

The police have always been great with them and I hope they are good with your DD too.

Good luck.

Whatever the situation, never attend an interview with the police without a solicitor.

Get legal advice asap.

She must have seriously injured him for the police to be interviewing her as she’s under 12 years old. Sounds like much more than just her defending herself.

Do you have home or car insurance that includes legal expenses? It maybe worth asking if they will fund a solicitor.

Make a formal SAR to the school for the CCTV.

Wait! What’s happened to the boy in this? Were other children interviewed as to what happened? Have you now complained to the police about the initial assault? Tell the police the video is online report it to whatever social media8 it is on.

Tge choice wasn’t a three day suspension or exclusion - it was about fighting DDs corner.,write to the governors. Demand to speak to the school re safeguarding.

Was this a one off incident or ongoing? Was your daughter injured/bruised.

You need to switch your mindset round, you seem to think your DD was in the wrong. Get legal advice and I would also look for a new school.. is this secondary or primary?

I would have gone apeshit at the school. Sounds like the boys family are twats and the school took the east way out. It won’t be long before the boys family are seeking compensation or having sad faces in the papers (prob why they’ve shared the footage)