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Anger at Met safer schools officer’s return after student’s wrongful arrest

A community meeting was held in Lambeth to support the Black Muslim student, who was traumatised by the ordeal

By Anita Mureithi
Anger at Met safer schools officer’s return after student’s wrongful arrest
No more 'safer schools’ officers, say over-policed communities | Guy Smallman/Getty images
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The Metropolitan Police has been criticised for allowing an officer to return to his school post after he wrongfully arrested a Black Muslim student and left her traumatised.

The arrest took place when the officer spotted the girl among a group of children playing with a nearby shop’s shutter after school. Her parents say she was manhandled by the officer, pushed into a nearby betting shop, handcuffed and arrested on suspicion of burglary.

Police sent 14 vehicles to the scene during the incident in May last year, but the girl was de-arrested after police found no crime had been committed. Her family also say the girl’s hijab was pulled off during the incident, which police deny, insisting it was “already partially removed before the incident began”.

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