Where does the law stand on the searching of minors by a Youth Club Leader

[Pebblemum]

I was wondering if anyone knew if a Youth Club Leader was allowed to intimidate and search children without either a police officer present or the parents permission.

At ds1's youth club tonight a couple of ps2 games went missing, one of the leaders, a large intimidating man, blocked the children from leaving and then the female leader started shouting abuse at the children and ordered them up on the stage where she started to search them. None of the parents were present except my neighbour who had arrived just before the man had blocked the door. She told me that many of the younger children looked scared and that the way the woman was talking to the children was disgusting. My neighbour grabbed our dc's and tried to leave but the man then tried to intimidate her and blocked her path. When she threatened to call the police as they were holding everyone against their will, he looked shaken and moved away. All the other parents had been forced to wait outside and didnt know what was going on until my neighbour told them, they were not happy either.

We all feel that the situation was dealt with badly and someone said that searching a minor without either a police officer or parent present was illegal. Is this true?

Either way we are going to complain. DS1 was visibly shaken when he got home, hes not used to being abused like that by an adult or held against his will. The poor thing is only recently getting his confidence back after being bullied at school. It took ages for me to convince him to give the youth club a try, he was worried about bumping into the boys who have been bullying him, and on his second visit this happens

It is illegal. And appalling practice.

it is false imprinsonment and assault at the least. i;d be on the phone to the old bill right now

Yep. Teachers have extremely limited rights to search in school - in practice if something gets nicked in a lesson, students might be kept back & asked to turn out bags etc, but if any of them flatly refused I think we'd have to call the police.

BUT the difference here, anyway, is that the youth club attendees are not in school or subject to school rules - so if they/their parents decide they're leaving, the YC leaders have no right that I can see to try & prevent them.

Personally I would contact the police. Is the group affiliated to any organisation or are the leaders answerable to anyone other than themselves? How old are the children who attend?

Very dodgy

they can make it a condition of entry to the club that they can search your bag inside jacket etc on the way in, they can not forse you to be searched, you can refuse but then they can refuse entry,

but that is different to searching them on suspision of theft, they can detain I think but not search, and certainly only when they have actually witness a crime them selves.

For instance you can't do A CITIZENS ARREST JUST BECAUSE YOU THINK SOMEONE HIT SOMEONE YOU HAVE TO ACTUALLY WITNESS IT, (OPPS CAPS).

All gets very technical, but I can say in this case they did not have the right to do what they did and it certainly was not good practice.

I would report it the people running the club have trust put in them, and if they have charge of these children you have to be able to trust their actions and judgement.

The children are 8-14 and im not sure who actually runs the club, it could be the local church but i will find out from my neighbour tomorrow.

indeed very rubbish.

i would also make sure that other checks werw in place like CRB checks health adn safety checks

I would complain both to the police and also see if your local council has a section which is responsible for monitoring/checking up on the organisation running the youth club, and its employees. I know that the monitoring of some play settings as well as childcare transferred to OFSTED a few years ago and I'm not sure how it works for this age group.