The Afrikan community is rightly outraged on hearing the news, that has just emerged, of ‘Child Q’, a 15-year-old Hackney school girl that was strip-searched on school premises by the police who were aware that she was menstruating at the time. (1) Although the search, termed by some as state sanctioned “sexual abuse”, (2) took place in late 2020 (while the world chanted ‘Black Lives Matter’), it only became known largely due to a report, the Local Child Safeguarding Practice Review Child Q by Jim Gamble QPM, Independent Child Safeguarding Commissioner and Rory McCallum, Senior Professional Advisor, released this month.
The report details an overall account of what under normal circumstances would be considered systemic failure at every level: class teacher, head of year, school safeguarding lead and Safer Schools Police Officer up to the headteacher. For the police there’s the individual officers, their sergeant and the BCU commander. There is also the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel that in early 2021 decided that the case “did not meet the criteria for a local child safeguarding practice review.” (3)
It is noteworthy that there has been little disagreement that this is a case of blatant racism, with the issue of adultification bias highlighted as a key vehicle in the criminalisation of our children. (4) The debate around police in schools has also re-ignited. One prominent supporter is London Mayor Sadiq Khan. Whilst stating that those involved in the Child Q strip search should ‘not be police officers’, he still defends the practice asserting that the officers that undertook the search were based in the school. However, he seems to have side-stepped the issue that was the school-based officer, who was off-site at the time, advised the school to call the police that ended up doing the search. (5) Still, there are some within the community who also advocate police in schools on the grounds that we have failed to deal effectively with drugs and knife crime, even on police premises.
The Child Q atrocity has also revealed the extent to which dehumanising strip- searches are carried out on Afrikan people in general and Afrikan children in particular. (6) In the last five years Afrikans in London accounted for 33.5% of strip-searches in London despite being 11% of the population (whites account for 27% of searches but are 45% of the population). (7) Alas, it’s even worse for our young people. For the period 2020-21 in Hackney (where Child Q lives) alone, of the 25 strip-searches conducted on children under 18, fifteen (60%) were on Afrikan children. Just were on white children. For the record (88%) of all of these searches were negative with an outcome of no further action recorded in 20 (80%) of the cases. (8)
Not surprisingly, there have been a number of protest events s (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zq-v3hgBLe4&t=11227s; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfu6kY45I7Y&t=5858s) condemning, the police and the school, along with calls to sack (or prosecute and even jail) the staff concerned (9) (https://www.change.org/p/justice-for-child-q; https://www.change.org/p/child-q-demanding-justice-justice4childq). and it appears that in the case of the teacher that called the police this has been the outcome. (10) The overwhelming refrain throughout was that the brutality and dehumanisation of our children needs to stop.
There are frequently debates around instances of brutality against Afrikan people, especially our children, about whether the system is broken or operating as it is supposed to. The former, tend to be accompanied demands for reform and the infusion for more Afrikans, particularly at leadership level. The converse is the position that the system is categorically not designed to meet our needs, is actually hell bent on our destruction and we can at best strive to minimise the harm while we/until we build autonomous institutions.
We of course send our prayers and healing vibrations to Child Q and her family. But we do need to reckon with exactly how, in accordance with the pledges made in the last few days, we will ensure that what happened to her will not happen to any more of our children.
(1) Nadine White (17/03/22) Child Q: Nationwide protests planned after police strip search Black schoolgirl. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/protests-hackney-police-strip-black-schoolgirl-b2038120.html
(2) StreetMic LiveStream (19/03/22) Angry protest after police STRIP-SEARCHED school girl. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zq-v3hgBLe4&t=11218s.; BBC News (16/03/22) Campaigners say police strip-search of black schoolgirl was ‘sexual assault’. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-60769462
(3 Jim Gamble and Rory McCallum (2022) the Local Child Safeguarding Practice Review Child Q. P. 3. https://chscp.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Child-Q-PUBLISHED-14-March-22.pdf
(4) Gamble and McCallum, Op. cit. p. 34.
(5) Peoples Dispatch (28/02/22) ‘TPLF’s regime was throughout supported by US, EU financially, militarily, and politically’. https://peoplesdispatch.org/2021/12/28/tplfs-regime-was-throughout-supported-by-us-eu-financially-militarily-and-politically/
(6) Nandini Archer and Anita Mureithi (18/03/22) Exclusive: More London children speak out about horrific police strip searches. https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/child-q-strip-search-london-metropolitan-police-hackney/
(7) Sophia Purdy-Moore (17/02/22) Met police’s use of traumatic and degrading strip-searches is on the rise. https://www.thecanary.co/uk/analysis/2022/02/17/met-polices-use-of-traumatic-and-degrading-strip-searches-is-on-the-rise/ The figure for Afrikans is 57,733 out of 172,093
(8) Gamble and McCallum, Op. cit. p. 11.
(9) StreetMic LiveStream (20/03/22) Angry protest march after police STRIP-SEARCHED Child Q. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfu6kY45I7Y
(10) Josh Bolton (18/03/22) ‘Teacher ‘sacked’ after calling police on Black schoolgirl, 15, who endured ‘traumatic’ strip-search. https://www.mylondon.news/news/south-london-news/teacher-sacked-after-calling-police-23438837
we ask the question:
Child Q: Is the system beyond reform?
1) Did you attend any of the Child Q protests/Rallies?
2) Why did the case take two years to come to light?
3) Is the system failing us or operating as designed?
4) Shouldn’t we have police in schools if we are unable to effectively deal with crime in our community?
5) What happens now after the protests?
6) What is the best way to support Child Q and her family?
Our Special Guests:
Bro. Ldr. Mbandaka: Resident guest who is Spiritual Leader of the Alkebu-Lan Revivalist Movement and an Afrikan-Centred Education Consultant. Bro. Ldr is a veteran activist of almost 40 years standing, a featured columnist in The Whirlwind newspaper and author of Mosiah Daily Affirmations and Education: An African-Centred Approach To Excellence.
Sis. Patricia Wharton: has spent over 30 years of her professional career, working with children and families to ensure that they are fully functioning caring and providing the emotional and social support that they need. She is a qualified Independent Domestic Violence Advisor (IDVA). Sis. Patricia is a freelance Parenting Practitioner offering Parenting Seminars workshops and courses, including running programmes in prison. She also offers talking sessions to young people at risk of Social Exclusions, Exclusion from school, self-harming depression, school refusers amongst other challenges. Sis. Patricia is the presenter for ‘The Let’s Talk Show’ on Chalkhill Community Radio Station.
Bro. Justin Finlayson: is the founder of United Borders music based charity ‘United Borders’ which helps young people to centre themselves, create music and pursue their passion. The charity aims to reduce youth violence by connecting young people in different areas using the medium of projects and passion. He is also part of the Stop Strip-Search collective, that campaigns against the dehumanising practice (https://www.endstripsearch.co.uk/).
Sis. Palma Black: is the founder and director of Soul Purpose 360 CIC a coaching, mentoring and training organisation for Black women. With over thirty-years experience in the community activism – she was a member of the Black Sections in the Labour Party, a founder member of the Anti-Racist Alliance (ARA) and has held senior roles in social housing and as an independent consultant in resident engagement. She is an Associate Director in a global engineering company and is a Personal Performance Coach and mum of two. She says she aspires to grow an army of Black women activists in communities up and down the cou
Bro. Justin Finlayson: is the founder of United Borders music based charity ‘United Borders’ which helps young people to centre themselves, create music and pursue their passion. The charity aims to reduce youth violence by connecting young people in different areas using the medium of projects and passion. He is also part of the Stop Strip-Search collective, that campaigns against the dehumanising practice (https://www.endstripsearch.co.uk/).
Sis. Palma Black: is the founder and director of Soul Purpose 360 CIC a coaching, mentoring and training organisation for Black women. With over thirty-years experience in the community activism – she was a member of the Black Sections in the Labour Party, a founder member of the Anti-Racist Alliance (ARA) and has held senior roles in social housing and as an independent consultant in resident engagement. She is an Associate Director in a global engineering company and is a Personal Performance Coach and mum of two. She says she aspires to grow an army of Black women activists in communities up and down the country (https://www.palmablackconsulting.com/).
ntry (https://www.palmablackconsulting.com/).