Two Met officers who strip-searched schoolgirl removed from frontline duties

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Two police officers involved in the strip search of a 15-year-old girl at a school in east London while she was on her period have been removed from frontline duties.

The Black student, known only as Child Q, was forced to spread her legs, use her hands to spread her buttock cheeks and cough after staff members at the school in Hackney wrongly suspected her of carrying cannabis and called the police.

A safeguarding report said the teenager was subjected to “traumatic” degradation by Metropolitan Police officers and that racism “likely played a factor” during the incident in December 2020.

Two of the five officers involved were removed from frontline duties on 17 March, a police spokesperson has confirmed, three days after the publication of the damning report.

Hackney’s police commander Marcus Barnett informed an online community meeting of the decision on Wednesday night, and revealed he learned of the incident in January 2021 – a month after it took place.

He confirmed the officers had been moved away from operational duties and were working in another part of the basic command unit while an Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) investigation continued.

Tensions ran high during the meeting, which was attended by hundreds online after the force was unable to find a venue, according to the Guardian.

During the incident last year, police arrived at the school after being called by teachers, who said they were concerned the teenager had drugs in her possession because she smelt of cannabis.

She was taken to the school’s medical room and searched by two female officers, while teachers remained outside.

She was subjected to what police call an MTIP search, or “more thorough search where intimate parts are exposed”.

During the incident her intimate body parts were exposed and she was asked to take off her sanitary towel, according to then safeguarding review.

No other adult was present, her parents were not contacted and no drugs were found.

She was then sent home by taxi, later sharing her distress with her mother.

The girl is now suing the Met and her school.

Three of the officers involved, who include the two removed from frontline duties, have been served notices by the IOPC informing them they are under investigation.

The Metropolitan Police apologised for the incident, saying the officers’ actions were “regrettable” and it “should never have happened”.

The police watchdog said its report into the incident was being “finalised”.