You can share and watch the meeting HERE
At NEU conference, delegates have voted overwhelmingly for a motion that police in schools should be an “absolute last resort”, in the wake of widespread rage at the abuse of Child Q (see full report).
Kevin Courtney, the union’s joint general secretary, said: “This has to stop, and the NEU is calling on the police to stop searching children and on the government to consult widely about revised behaviour guidance, which has child safeguarding front and centre.”
“What happened to Child Q cannot be allowed to ever happen again,” said Carly Slingsby, a teacher from Hackney, the local authority that includes Child Q’s school.
“We need to close the doors and school gates to the police so that our children will know they won’t be the next Child Q.”
In his opening speech to the conference, the NEU president, Daniel Kebede, said the Child Q case highlighted “a growing trend in which police are ever-present in schools”, leading to the increased criminalisation of children.
“Some say I’m wrong and police can provide a pastoral role, but I don’t think that’s right. They degraded, abused and humiliated Child Q,” Kebede said.
Noting that Child Q had not been in possession of drugs, Kebede said: “I know a place where 11 in 12 toilets tested positive for cocaine. It’s a place where there is a 24-hour police presence. It’s called the Houses of Parliament. Why are [the Met] strip-searching children and not strip-searching MPs?”
The previous week, the NEU had been at the centre of a Stand Up To Racism emergency meeting, Justice for Child Q: Stop Racist Policing in Our Schools, in the space of a week following the big protests in Hackney. Over 700 registered for the event on Thursday 7 April, with over 600 attending on the night across the Zoom and Facebook and YouTube livestreams, and a further 700 views since on YouTube so far.
The panel included Kevin Courtney NEU general secretary, Diane Abbott MP, Lester Holloway editor of The Voice, Jacqueline Coutenay Hackney protest organiser and activist, Cristale Drill artist & musician, Patrick Vernon social commentator and justice campaigner, Daniel Kebede NEU president, Chantelle Lunt Merseyside BLM, Corey Johnson musician and artist and Wilf Sullivan TUC Race Equality Officer.
The meeting called for a conference on the issue of racist policing in schools and the fight for anti racist education, and a national demonstration. More details to follow.