Schoolgirl on her period searched for cannabis

A BLACK schoolgirl was strip-searched by police while on her period after teachers wrongly suspected her of carrying cannabis.

The Metropolitan Police was forced to apologise for the ‘traumatic’ search and a review found racism ‘was likely to have been an influencing factor’.

The girl, known as Child Q, was searched in 2020 on school premises in Hackney, east London, without another adult present. Police were called by teachers who claimed she smelled of cannabis.

The 1 -year-old was taken to a medical room and strip-searched by two female officers while teachers remained outside. No drugs were found. In a written statement to the Met’s review, the girl said: ‘The people that allowed this to happen need to be held responsible.

‘I was held responsible for a smell... but I’m just a child.’

Her family said the incident turned her from a ‘happy-go-lucky girl to a timid recluse that hardly speaks’, self-harms and needs therapy.

Scotland Yard said the incident ‘should never have happened’.