Black girl strip-searched by Met officers at London school tells of trauma | Metropolitan police

A black schoolgirl who was strip-searched by Metropolitan police officers at her school has said she was so traumatised by the incident she has been left wanting “to scream, shout, cry or just give up” every day.

The 15-year-old, who was menstruating at the time, was targeted at her school in Hackney, east London, over unfounded suspicions she had cannabis. A council report found that racism had been a likely factor in her treatment.

The Guardian understands that three Met officers who were placed under investigation by the police watchdog over the incident remain on full duties. The Met has apologised for the girl’s treatment.

She released a statement through her family’s solicitor on Wednesday describing her pain.

“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,” she said.

“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 mother of the girl, known only as Child Q, said her daughter had been treated as a criminal while at school and that she feared she had been done permanent harm. She 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, said race was a likely factor: “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.”

The family statement revealed that searches of the child’s bag, blazer, scarf and shoes yielded nothing of note, before she was strip-searched without an appropriate adult being present.

The incident has triggered outrage and disbelief, with Labour frontbencher Jess Phillips likening the treatment to child abuse.

The case is being investigated by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) which has issued notices to three officers saying they are under investigation for potential disciplinary offences over how tgirl was treated in December 2020.

The strip search happened at a school in Hackney, east London. A report by Hackney council said racism was likely to be a factor and described the episode as “humiliating, traumatising and utterly shocking”.

The Met has been buffeted under Cressida Dick’s commissionership by scandals over its treatment of ethnic minorities and women.

Phillips, the shadow minister for domestic violence and safeguarding, described the case as “awful,” 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.”

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.”

The Hackney council report said the child was made to bend over, spread her legs and use her hands to spread her buttocks while coughing. She is now in therapy and self-harming, according to family members’ statements to the inquiry.

It said: “Having considered the context of the incident, the views of those engaged in the review and the impact felt by Child Q and her family, racism (whether deliberate or not) was likely to have been an influencing factor in the decision to undertake a strip search.”

The school was visited by four officers including two women who carried out the search of the girl . Her mother was not contacted.

The child’s maternal aunt said her niece had turned from “a happy-go-lucky girl” to a “timid recluse” who hardly spoke to her.

• In the UK, the charity Mind is available on 0300 123 3393 and ChildLine on 0800 1111. In the US, Mental Health America is available on 800-273-8255. In Australia, support is available at Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636, Lifeline on 13 11 14, and at MensLine on 1300 789 978