A BLACK schoolgirl who was subjected to a humiliating and traumatic strip-search by police officers at her school has launched legal proceedings against the Metropolitan Police and her school.

The girl, known only as Child Q, has thanked “thousands of people across the world” who have shared support for the teenager following her ordeal.

She was stripped-searched by officers in the knowledge that she was menustrating.

The child was wrongly accused of carrying cannabis while sitting her exams at her school in Hackney, east London.

The case of Child Q has sparked growing calls among MPs and campaigners who have called for the officers and teachers involved in the “humiliating and traumatising” intimate search to be sacked and prosecuted.

The Met issued an apology and described the incident as “regrettable,” but politicians including Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy labelled their response as “reputation management” and the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, condemned the case as “shocking and deeply disturbing.”

In a statement, Child Q said: “I want to thank the thousands of people across the world of all backgrounds who have offered me support – both publicly and through messages conveyed to my legal team – following everything I’ve been through. I know I am not alone.”

Child Q’s mother said: “We now look to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) to make sure there is an effective investigation into the officers involved so they are individually held to account and face real consequences for what they have done.

“We expect the school to reflect on the findings of the City and Hackney Safeguarding Children Partnership report and take necessary action against all members of staff involved.”

Demonstrations against the treatment of the young girl are planned to go ahead across the country.

A review by the City & Hackney Safeguarding Children Partnership said that racism “was likely to have been an influencing factor” in her case and that if she was not black her experience would have been different.

Three out of the four police officers who were called to the school remain under investigation by the police watchdog after it was revealed that they were allowed to carry on policing duties after the harrowing incident.

Chanel Dolcy, a solicitor at Bhatt Murphy – who is representing Child Q’s case – said that the teenager is seeking to hold the Met police and her school to account, while enduring for “cast iron commitments to ensure this never happens again to any other child.”

She also called on Sadiq Khan to ensure the suitable appointment of a new Met comissioner.

“The Metropolitan Police has seemed incapable of reform for generations, and it is difficult to say that will ever change,” she said.

“Nevertheless, this is a pivotal time for the Metropolitan Police as it awaits the appointment of a new Commissioner and so the family are calling on the Home Secretary and Mayor of London to ensure that only someone willing to declare publicly the persistence of institutional racism and institutional sexism in the Metropolitan Police is appointed.

“The family expect the new Commissioner to include affected communities in designing a plan to rid the force of these diseases and to affect that plan as a priority.”

Florence Cole, an Education & Community Care solicitor at Just for Kids Law, said: “From the education aspect, there is still ongoing correspondence with the school following the initial complaint launched by Child Q and her mother in 2020; in which they seek to hold the school to account and to ensure this never happens again to any other child.  

“No child should be subjected to such an ordeal, and it is hoped that the school will reflect and consider the detrimental effects and negative impact that adultification, disproportionate sanctioning and the over policing of black children has on their emotional, physical, and mental wellbeing, particularly in light of the City and Hackney Safeguarding Children Partnership report and its findings.

She added: “All children should feel safe in schools and parents should feel reassured that their children will be kept safe; and that the correct policies, practice, and procedures are followed.

“This is an appalling, shocking case which illustrates wider problems in schools and communities about the treatment of black children which unfortunately is systemic; and the lack of safeguarding and the failure to recognise the ripple effects of trauma that follows, long after such an ordeal.

“As the government sets guidance for schools, we strongly urge it to learn from the failings in this case.”