Why Was Child Q Searched: What Happened To Child Q?
A Black schoolgirl has launched legal action against the Metropolitan Police and her school after she was strip-searched by officers while on her period.
The girl was wrongly suspected of smelling of cannabis.
Who is Child Q?
The black schoolgirl, now 15, is known only as Child Q.
The “traumatic” search by police took place at Child Q’s school without another adult present.
Officers were aware she was on her period, a safeguarding review found.
The review found during the search her body parts were exposed and she was made to take off her sanitary towel.
No drugs were found and she was then sent home by taxi.
Her family strongly believe the strip search was a racist incident.
According to the report, the impact on the school pupil was “profound” and the repercussions “obvious and ongoing”.
Family members described her as changing from a “happy-go-lucky girl to a timid recluse who hardly speaks” and now needs therapy.
The report concluded the strip search should never have happened, was unjustified and racism “was likely to have been an influencing factor”.
It said it is highly likely that “adultification bias” was a factor – this is when adults perceive black children as being older than they are because they see them as more “streetwise”.
Her lawyers said in a statement Child Q “seeks to hold both institutions to account including through cast iron commitments to ensure this never happens again to any other child.”
Scotland Yard has apologised and said the incident “should never have happened”.
The Local Child Safeguarding Practice Review was conducted by City & Hackney Safeguarding Children Partnership (CHSCP).
The girl made a statement saying she wants everyone involved to “be held responsible.”
She added: “I need to know that the people who have done this to me can’t do it to anyone else ever again, in fact so no one else can do this to any other child in their care.”
Detective Superintendent Dan Rutland of the Met’s Central East Command issued an apology to the girl who now needs therapy.
He said: “We recognise 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 apologise to the child concerned, her family and the wider community.”
From Ngnews247