A 15-year-old Black schoolgirl has spoken out after news emerged that she was strip-searched by Met Police officers two years ago. The girl, dubbed ‘Child Q’, has been quoted as saying she was left severely traumatised by the incident and wanting “to scream, shout, cry or just give up” every day.
Child Q was targeted at her school in Hackney, East London, after she was wrongly accused of having cannabis by a teacher. She was then strip-searched by police despite menstruating at the time, without an appropriate adult being present, and without her mother being contacted.
Three officers have reportedly been placed under investigation by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) over the incident, although they remain on full duties. A report by the local council determined that racism had probably been a factor in her treatment.
On Wednesday, March 18, Child Q released a statement via her family’s solicitor. It reads: “Someone walked into the school, where I was supposed to feel safe, took me away from the people who were supposed to protect me and stripped me naked, while on my period. I can’t go a single day without wanting to scream, shout, cry or just give up. I don’t know if I’m going to feel normal again. But I do know this can’t happen to anyone else, ever again.”
The child’s family also issued a statement, saying that the girl was now in therapy after self-harming. Child Q’s mother said: “Professionals treated her as an adult. She was searched as an adult. Is it because of her skin? Her hair? Why her? My daughter is a changed person. We try to reassure her but looking to the future, we can’t say she will ever recover.”
The family’s solicitor, Chanel Dolcy, added that race was likely a factor in the child’s treatment: “It is unlikely that Child Q would have been treated in this humiliating and degrading way had she not been Black. Child Q and her family are hopeful that the recommendations of the review panel will be carefully considered and implemented so that another child is not exposed to a similar traumatic experience.”
Jess Phillips, the Shadow Minister for domestic violence and safeguarding, described the case as child abuse, adding: “I cannot for one second imagine why any one of these professionals thought this was in any way acceptable. Remember what it was like to be 15? This seems as if it was designed to humiliate and show power, the act of an abuser.”
The Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy said on Twitter: “The Met have apologised to a child they strip-searched after wrongly suspecting her of carrying cannabis. Whilst on her period. Without an adult present. Without wholesale reform of the way the Met engages with the Black community, this apology is just reputation management.”
A spokesperson for Black Lives Matter UK said: “Once again, we are reminded of the fact that the police are the perpetrators and there are no lengths they wouldn’t go to inflict harm on vulnerable people. The horrific strip search of a Black girl at school is a clear example of why police should not be in places of education. While politicians have recently called for more police officers to be stationed in schools across the capital, children are being traumatised in spaces that should be safe.”
LBC’s James O’Brien had this to say...
