“Child Q,” as she’s referred to, was accused by her teachers of smelling of marijuana. She denied having any drugs on her, and even after a “search of [the girl’s] bag, blazer, scarf, and shoes revealed nothing of significance,” a report reads, school authorities refused to believe her. So, they called in the British Metropolitan Police Service.
According to The Daily Beast, Child Q was taken out of her classroom, and escorted by four officers (two male and two female) where she was strip-searched, despite the fact that officers knew she was menstruating. She was allegedly made to remove her menstrual pad, bend over, spread her buttocks, and cough. There were no teachers or administrators present and her parents were not notified prior to the search.
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“This was not treated as a safeguarding issue but a criminal matter,” the girl’s mother said in a statement. “Professionals treated her as an adult. She was searched as an adult. Is it because of her skin? Her hair? Why her?”
In her own statement, Child Q writes, “I don’t know if I’m going to feel normal again. I don’t know how long it will take,” Child Q said in her statement. “But I do know this can't happen to anyone, ever again.”
Child Q’s aunt tells The Daily Beast that, before this horrific incident in 2020, her niece was a good student. “She is now self-harming and requires therapy,” she told the City of London & Hackney Safeguarding Children Partnership (CHSCP), a child welfare agency. “She is traumatized and is now a shell of the bubbly child she was before this incident.”
The Metropolitan Police issued an apology this week, saying the strip search was "regrettable" and it "should never have happened,” according to the BBC.
But that seems like too little, too late.
“Child Q had been exposed to a traumatic incident and had undoubtedly suffered harm. […] The repercussions on Child Q’s emotional health were obvious and ongoing. Given the context of where and how the search took place, it was impossible not to view these circumstances as anything other than the most serious and significant,” the report said.
“The incident also illustrated […] disproportionality and racism,” the report added, “and how these factors might have influenced the actions of organizations and individual professionals.”
According to a report released earlier this week, CHSCP found that the school-conducted strip search was racially influenced.
“This truly shocking case is indicative of the adultification of Black children routinely taken by authorities,” family attorney Chanel Dolcy said. “It is unlikely that [the child] would have been treated in this humiliating and degrading way had she not been Black.”