- London's Metropolitan police faced backlash after it was revealed a black child was strip-searched.
- The girl reportedly "smelt of marijuana," which led to her being intimately searched.
- Her mother and aunt detail how she is now withdrawn, depressed, and self-harming.
London's Metropolitan Police have been widely condemned after it has been revealed that their officers conducted a humiliating strip search on a 15-year-old girl at her school after claiming she smelled marijuana.
A Local Child Safeguarding Practice Review has concluded that the search was informed by racism, "whether deliberate or not."
She plans to take civil action against her school over the incident at the end of 2020, according to law firm Bhatt Murphy, Sky News reported.
Teachers at the school in Hackney, east London, suspected that Child Q had cannabis on her person after saying that she smelled the class B drug and was acting strangely, said the review.
The teachers searched the girl's bag, blazer, scarf, and shoes, but they remained suspicious. Two male and two female police officers were called to perform a strip search.
Child Q was forced to strip off her clothes and remove her sanitary pad. Her aunt told the review that she had to "bend over, spread her legs, use her hands to spread her buttocks cheek while coughing."
No cannabis was ever found on the girl.
Afterward, teachers told Child Q to go back into the exam without anyone asking her how she felt knowing what she had just gone through, her mother said in evidence.
Child Q's family said that the straight-A student is now a "shell of the child she used to be," describing how the trauma of the incident has led her to self-harm and not engage with her family. Due to the school accusing her of carrying drugs, the student is now facing rumors that she is a "big-time drugs seller," her aunt told the board.
"Why doesn't my daughter deserve the same rights as every other child? Is this because they think she is a young girl, with no respect for her parents or adults and no fear of consequences or because she is a black child living in a poor city area?" Child Q's mother asked the review authors.
Child Q told the review that "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."
Scotland Yard said the officers' actions were "regrettable" and "should never have happened," reported the BBC.
David Lammy, Labour's Shadow Foreign Secretary, said on Twitter: "All of us deserve dignity and respect, irrespective of race or gender." The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said it was a "deeply disturbing case."
Nationwide protests have been organized in solidarity with Child Q and highlight people's anger with the police force.
History of misconduct by the Met Police
A group of Black female Labour MPs (Marsha de Cordova, Dianne Abbott, Dawn Butler, Florence Eshalomi, Kim Johnson, and Bell Ribeiro-Addy) said of Child Q's experience: " Sadly, this is the latest in a series of grave revelations about the unacceptable behavior of serving police officers."
—Marsha de Cordova MP (@MarshadeCordova) March 17, 2022
"The Home Secretary must put ending the scourge of institutional racism and sexism in the Metropolitan Police at the heart of choosing the next Commissioner."
The Metropolitan Police, with more than 43,000 officers and staff, has faced mounting criticism for racist and sexist misconduct.
An Independent Office for Police Conduct investigation in January found that themes of racism, sexism, bullying, and harassment were present within the force. In one incident, an officer said, "My dad kidnapped some African children and used them to make dog food," In WhatsApp messages, another officer said, "You ever slapped your missus? "It makes them love you more."
One of the most high-profile cases of police misconduct was the kidnapping, rape, and murder by Wayne Couzens, a Met police officer, of Sarah Everard, a 33-year-old woman, in March 2021.
Couzens was also charged this week with four counts of indecent exposure before having killed Everard.
The government released the "Inclusive Britain" report the day Child Q's story broke, with the reporting aiming to "tackle racial disparities, boost opportunity and promote fairness in the UK," with 70 actions, many of which are focused on molding the country's relationship with the police force.
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