Child Q

The traumatic experience of Child Q is unquestionably heart-wrenching, bringing about visceral pain, and justifiable anger across the Hackney community as a whole. This is a girl who was dehumanised and adultified, her race playing a part in how she was both perceived and treated.  The impact on her is unimaginable, but we know that what she experienced will leave an indelible mark, a mark which she will carry for the rest of her life. 

Since this case was brought to the fore, we have witnessed an outpouring of love for Child Q and alongside many, many others I joined protests outside Stoke Newington Police Station and the town hall.  Attendees were unified in their horror of the fact that the ‘smell of cannabis’ resulted in the violation of Child Q, both mentally and physically.

Like everyone else I was increasingly incensed as I read through the Serious Case Review, fearful of what the next page would reveal.  Learning the details of what she was subject to in their entirety left me cold.  The abject failures of school staff and police officers found her subject to systems and processes which in their enactment were both racist and misogynistic, with safeguarding playing absolutely no role in what she went through.

Her experience is sadly not one that can be viewed in isolation, rather it is emblematic of the experiences of many Black children and young people across London. We know that during 2020/21 in the command unit of the Met covering Hackney 25 children under the age of 18 were strip-searched only two of which were white. It isn’t such a leap of faith to therefore conclude that the actions of the officers involved in the case of Child Q were, at the time, considered accepted practice.

Over the past few years alone, disproportionate sanctioning of Black children in our secondary schools has been brought to the fore via Hackney’s Children’s and Young People’s Scrutiny Commission.  The over-policing of Black people, and particularly young people, was spotlighted by the Living in Hackney Commission as recently as 2021, with youth-led organisation Hackney Account consistently calling this out. 

These were issues which were addressed during the Conference for the Black Child which took place in Hackney on 11 June 2022. The event co-hosted by Diane Abbott MP had a specific focus on developing tangible anti-racist strategies to fight institutional racism in our schools. Across the board and clear in the narratives of speakers as diverse as Akala (activist, journalist, author and rapper) Lester Holloway (Editor- Voice Newspaper) and Leroy Logan (former Deputy Borough Commander – Hackney), it was recognised that the systems Black children are subject are still far removed from the principles of equality and equity, moreover that within our schools this continues to be played out day after day.   

When attendees considered what sanctions a school responsible for failing to adhere to basic safeguarding principles should be subject to, or where there are ongoing concerns regarding off-rolling and disproportionately excluding Black children, there was a clarion call for change.  The prevailing sense was that without systemic change no amount of training or paper policies would be able to tackle the deeply embedded racism our young people are subject to.  This sentiment was echoed when discussing police in schools, a provision said to improve community relations.  Parents in attendance viewed this strategy as placing ethnically diverse and working-class communities as subordinates, prone to criminality.  One view which was repeated time and time again was the fact that while Black children are subject to policing which subjugates them based on factors such as what they are wearing or simply walking to the shops, the presence of police in schools offered them cold comfort.

It goes without saying that Institutional racism enacted by public organisations in our country and indeed our borough is not a new phenomenon; it is one Black Hackney elders have lived through, likewise their children and now their grandchildren. 

Ultimately, the time for platitudes is over.  When it comes to the safeguarding of Black children in our schools and a police service that operates without prejudice, the time for change is now.

For all the apologies and talk of training the agencies responsible for the Child Q case will be undertaking over the coming months, it will amount to nought if the lived experience of Child Q and so many other Global Majority and working-class children, continues to be one of subjugation and oppression at the hands of those that are meant to nurture and protect them.