‘Racist’ Met strip-searched black girl, 14, in school exposing sanitary pads after WRONGLY accusing her of having drugs
THE Metropolitan Police has apologised for strip-searching an innocent black schoolgirl after wrongly accusing her of carrying cannabis.
Officers conducted the "traumatic" search without another adult in the room at the girl's secondary school in Hackney, London, in 2020.
The girl was on her period and officers were aware of this at the time, a safeguarding report found.
It concluded the strip search should never have happened, was unjustified and racism "was likely to have been an influencing factor".
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).
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It said the impact on the girl - referred to as Child Q - was "profound" and the repercussions "obvious and ongoing".
Her family said she has changed from a "happy-go-lucky girl to a timid recluse that hardly speaks" and needs therapy.
The report said police arrived at the girl's school after being called by teachers, who told the review they had been concerned the teen had drugs on her because she smelt of cannabis.
She was taken to the medical room and strip searched by two female officers, while teachers waited outside.
During the ordeal her intimate body parts were exposed and she was made to take off her sanitary towel, according to the review.
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No drugs were found. She was then sent home by taxi, later sharing her distress with her mum.
Her family strongly believe the strip search was a racist incident, and the review found her experiences are "unlikely to have been the same" had she not been black.
It said it is highly likely that "adultification bias" was a factor - where adults perceive black children as being older than they are because they see them as more "streetwise".
In a written statement to the review, the girl said she wanted everyone who allowed the strip search to happen to "be held responsible".
She said: "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."
'DEEPLY DISTURBING'
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan branded the case "shocking and deeply disturbing", adding "no child should ever have to face a situation like this".
Meanwhile, Councillor Anntoinette Bramble, deputy mayor and cabinet member for Hackney Council's Children's Services, and the mayor of Hackney, Philip Glanville, said they were "appalled" by all aspects of the review.
The review found that school staff deferred to the police's authority and "should have been more challenging".
This has been accepted by the school, with one staff member saying: "I have never known, nor would I condone, a strip search of a young person on a school site."
The Metropolitan Police said the IOPC was investigating, following a complaint in May 2021.
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Detective Superintendent Dan Rutland of the Met's Central East Command 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."