The disgraceful ordeal of Child Q

To The Independent

The clearly racist treatment by Metropolitan Police officers of a black 15-year-old schoolgirl in a Hackney school was truly shocking. Those officers, and the teaching staff who stood by as the poor girl, known as Child Q, was subjected to the most unspeakably humiliating strip search, should be ashamed of themselves. That the girl’s mother was not informed, nor given the opportunity to attend the girl’s ordeal, makes the police and teachers’ behaviour even more disgraceful. The fact that the search found no drugs merely adds to the unforgivable event.

I am glad that Hackney Council leaders and London Mayor Sadiq Khan are taking up this case. The Met can hardly withstand another scandal. I look forward to confirmation that those responsible will be sacked without delay.

Patrick Moore, Norwich

To The Guardian

While the police’s behaviour has clearly been despicable, racist and probably unlawful in the case of Child Q, recent history has already, sadly, highlighted such traits in the Met. What we didn’t expect, and is profoundly shocking, is the reported behaviour of the schoolteachers involved. In loco parentis, their role of protecting, guiding and supporting their students was paramount, yet catastrophically betrayed in this incident.

We learn the strip-search officers were women, and would hope the teachers in attendance outside the room were too. What on earth were they doing? How would they expect a daughter of theirs to be treated? A child arriving at school smelling of cannabis is a child needing support. Instead, she was placed in a hostile and intimidating situation. The teachers’ responsibility to involve a parent, to call a lawyer and, above all, to show care and compassion was jettisoned to the point that no parent or pupil can in future trust them. They should go, and the headteacher and governors must be re-evaluated. Sue Evans, London