A black schoolgirl who was strip-searched by police after being wrongly suspected of carrying cannabis is to sue the Met it has been reported.
Protests about the incident are happening today in Hackney.
A safeguarding report this month found the search was unjustified.
The girl is being represented by Chanel Dolcy, a solicitor at Bhatt Murphy specialising in police misconduct and claims against public authorities, and Florence Cole, an Education and Community Care solicitor at Just for Kids Law.
“Child Q has launched civil proceedings against the Metropolitan Police and relevant school,” Ms Dolcy said.
“She seeks to hold both institutions to account including through cast-iron commitments to ensure this never happens again to any other child. The Metropolitan Police has seemed incapable of reform for generations, and it is difficult to say that will ever change.
“Nevertheless, this is a pivotal time for the Metropolitan Police as it awaits the appointment of a new Commissioner. Child Q’s 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 Met Police is appointed as the new Met Commissioner.
“Child Q’s 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.”
She added: “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.”
