#child q

[lesbiansandgayssupporttheminers]

Met rebuked for strip searches two years before Child Q case in Hackney

Report said incidents were not all warranted or properly justified

How do you justify a strip search of a child?

[songofwizardry]

[cw for discussions of racism and police brutality]

if you’re in the UK, you may have heard of the case of Child Q in Hackney that was recently made public. (if you don’t, here is a BBC link summarising the situation—in short, a 15 year old Black girl was pulled out of an exam and strip-searched on suspicion of drug possession)

there is unfortunately a tendency for people to minimise the racism and brutality of the UK police, and the racism and policing in schools as well. which is not true—this is not an isolated incident (see this information from a FOI request on strip-searches carried out by the met).

if – like me – you are an adult in the education system, you gotta know that we are working within, and often are complicit in, a system that is structurally racist and anti-Black; that disproportionately targets, excludes, and fails Black children and young people; that there is a school-to-prison pipeline; that we are surrounded by “behaviour management” systems that police and damage children and young people and we replicate those systems every day in our classrooms and school spaces.

I do not know how we fix the entirety of the education system. I do know, however, that we have a responsibility to be aware of what the systems we’re working in are built on, to recognise that they’re going to disproportionately harm some young people, and to do our best to mitigate that. situations like Child Q’s don’t happen because of one or two bad apples—they happen because adults, school staff, people in authority feel comfortable profiling, targeting, and policing the bodies of children and young people; because they don’t recognise the dangers police can have; because they are complicit in systems like PREVENT that criminalise and target certain children. this is bigger than one person. this is in all our settings and schools and the ways in which we interact with children and young people on a day-to-day basis.

so, on that note, some resources/organisations I have found useful, particularly for adults working in education/with young people:

No More Exclusions, a Black-led abolitionist org working to reduce school exclusions

Care2Liberate, a coalition of anti-racist educators

KidsOfColourHQ, a Manchester-based organisation that works to keep police out of schools

you can also follow their hashtag #NoPoliceInSchools on twitter, or find their website here

Sisters Uncut (website/twitter) do a lot of organising and direct action on police violence

Maslaha recently launched a radical safeguarding guide

(US-based, but) Girls for Gender Equity have an excellent resource pack on police free schools

and finally, join your local copwatch group! this tweet and the replies have a few

[ladymazzy]

‘It can never happen again’: hundreds gather in support of Child Q

‘It can never happen again’: hundreds gather in support of Child Q

Local MP Diane Abbott decries ‘pattern of police abuse of power’ after strip search of black schoolgirl

[quehaylondres]

Comisionada de la Infancia de Inglaterra reveló que miles de niños de tan solo 8 años han sido cacheados al desnudo por la policía

Un informe reveló que la policía está desnudando y cacheando a niños de hasta ocho años. Según el informe, detalla casi 3.000 registros de menores en Inglaterra y Gales durante cuatro años. También se descubrió que algunos niños fueron cacheados al desnudo en la parte trasera de camionetas policiales, escuelas y establecimientos de comida rápida. El informe también encontró “des proporcionalidad…

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[seachranaidhe]

CRITICISM | Concerns over PSNI/RUC strip-searching of children as only one in 27 accompanied by appropriate adult

Concern expressed over PSNI strip searching of children in the North of IrelandAmnesty International has called on the PSNI to end the…

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[soulakuarian]

"Lastly I would like to use this time to express my continued disappointment at the lack of shame Kemi Badenoch possesses.

To infer that the support Child Q has been shown is proof of a progressive society is a big lie from the pits of hell and it is this type of gaslighting which enables more harm to be inflicted on the most vulnerable in our already racially minoritised communities."

Child Q wasn’t regarded as a girl because she is black.

By Kelechi Okafor.