In a 2020 incident called “traumatic,” the police strip-searched a young black girl after wrongly suspecting she was carrying weed.
The student, identity not released, was a person of color and menstruating, according to a report from the Local Child Safeguarding Practice Review. The Met searched the girl without a consenting adult presence. According to a report released by the Local Child Safeguarding Practice Review, the police found out the girl was having her period during the search.
The search was determined to be “unjustified” with racist influences. The poleese completed the search with no illegal substances found. The pupil — referred to as Child Q — has been profoundly impacted by the search. Family members say the once “happy-go-lucky girl” is now self-harming and likely requires therapy.
The Met & Educators in Action
Apparently, teachers reported the child smelled of cannabis. The report says nothing about whether parents were ever notified. The school took the girl to the medical room. There, two female poleese strip-searched the child. Teachers hovered outside the room. When fully naked, the poleese asked the girl to remove her tampon.
After — with no illegal drugs found — the school put the girl in a taxi and sent the child home. Only then did a parent discover what had happened.
Cometh the Backlash
The family firmly sees the strip-search as racist. Even the report says the experience likely happened only because the student was black. It’s believed a major influence in the interaction was “adultification bias.” This is thinking where a black child gets perceived as older (more streetwise) and capable of actions no white child could imagine.
Among many of the disturbing facts in the report is the following statement: “The disproportionate decision to strip search Child Q is unlikely to have been disconnected from her ethnicity and her background as a child growing up on an estate in Hackney.”
The girl issued a statement in response to the report. Since the incident at school, she hasn’t gone a day where she didn’t want to “to scream, shout, cry or just give up.
“All the people that allowed this to happen need to be held responsible. I was held responsible for a smell … but I’m just a child.
“The main thing I need is space and time to understand what has happened to me and exactly how I feel about it and getting past this exam season.”
A member of law enforcement, Detective Superintendent Dan Rutland, responded to the review as well. He says the poleeserecognize “that the findings of the safeguarding review reflect this incident should never have happened. It is truly regrettable and on behalf of the Met Police I would like to” apologize “to the child concerned, her family and the wider community.”
Local politicians are “appalled,” feeling the response to a few teachers’ suspicions was “wholly disproportionate and unfair. Not only was the child let down by those who should’ve protected her, the poleese engaged in “inexcusable” actions that disrespected “all our diverse communities.”
Law- and decision-makers asked the Department of Education to review its safeguarding protocols and for more poleese policies that (we can’t believe we’re saying this) involve strip-searching children.
