Two Officers Who Strip-Searched Black Girl Sent On Desk Duty, Civil Action Taken Against Met, School

The Metropolitan Police has apologised for strip-searching a Black schoolgirl in 2020 - an incident that “should never have happened” and which left her “traumatised”.

Scotland Yard has revealed that two of the five Metropolitan Police officers who carried out an unjustified strip-search of a Black schoolgirl in London in December 2020 have been removed from frontline duties.

The Met made the admission at an online community meeting in Hackney on 23 March, though it did not clarify what happened to three other officers involved in the search after the teenager, known as Child Q, was wrongly suspected by teachers of carrying drugs.

Marcus Barnett, Hackney’s Basic Unit commander, admitted the police should not have been involved in the incident, and the school “should not have called us”.

Pupils sit in a classroom at a school in in Manchester, England, Monday March 8, 2021

© AP Photo / Jon Super

At the time, the 15-year-old girl, who was menstruating, had been removed from an exam and forced to remove her clothes, exposing her private parts, after a teacher wrongly accused her of possessing cannabis. No drugs were found on the schoolgirl, who was sent home by taxi.

The police panel, led by Barnett, also revealed that the Met has problems with regarding adolescents as adults.

“I think we view inner London kids as adults - the issue we have in policing at the moment is that we view kids and believe that kids in London are more resilient than they are,” said Detective Superintendent Dan Rutland, also on the panel.

Barnett also confirmed that he had known the schoolgirl had been strip-searched in January 2021, a month after the incident.

At present, an Independent Office for Police Conduct is investigating the incident.

'Traumatising' Strip Search

Previously, the Metropolitan Police apologised for the incident that had “traumatised” the teenager after the Local Child Safeguarding Practice Review, carried out by the City & Hackney Safeguarding Children Partnership CHSCP) determined that the strip search had been unjustified, emphasising that racism “was likely to have been an influencing factor”.

In a statement, Detective Superintendent Dan Rutland acknowledged that “the findings of the safeguarding review reflect that this incident should never have happened”.

In a written statement to the review, findings of which were published in March, the unnamed girl revealed that after the humiliating incident she feels as though she “wants to scream, shout, cry or just give up” each day.

It has also been reported that Child Q has since launched civil proceedings against both the Met and her London school.