Transcription
Six police officers came to my house and arrested me. Why? Because I've been talking about my daughter's school on a WhatsApp group.
It was the morning of Wednesday the 29th of January, about 4:12. I was on a Zoom call for a work project when, on my Zoom screen, in the little window where I saw my own face, I realized that two police officers were standing behind me. Another two police officers were arresting my partner, Rosalind, in front of Franchesca, our three-year-old daughter. They bundled us into the police cars and took us off to custody at Stevenage police station, where we remained for the next 12 hours.
He arrested me on suspicion of harassment and malicious communications, and it was to do with a dispute with our daughter's primary school, which began with posts on a WhatsApp group on the 23rd of November 2023. The head teacher of my daughter's primary school announced he would retire, but what seemed strange to me was the Board of Governors decided immediately to appoint the deputy head as acting head 10 months later, without even advertising the job.
So, I made some inquiries. I contacted the chair of governors in private and in good faith and asked her to explain what the rationale was and what was going to happen. Her response, in my opinion, was rather evasive. So, I asked again, and I wrote to all the governors asking them to explain what was happening and why they decided to do that. I posted that letter in a WhatsApp group. It's a private parents' WhatsApp group. On that WhatsApp group, like most parents, we chatted about a few things. One thing we talked about on that group was a letter from the school commanding all parents not to talk about the school on Facebook or social media or WhatsApp groups. We thought that was a bit off.
My partner, Roslyn, made a handful of vaguely spicy comments. She referred to one school leaver as a control freak. She said the chair of governors didn't know much about anything. Out of the blue, on the 12th of July last year, the chair of governors wrote to Roslyn and me. She accused us of posting disparaging and inflammatory comments on WhatsApp and Facebook, and she warned us that if we didn't stop, she would ban us from our daughter's school.
So, we pushed back. We complained. We denied the accusations. We complained that they'd been accessing our messages, and two days later, they banned us from the school. Now, this ban had really serious implications for our daughter, Sasha. She has epilepsy, she's disabled, she has special needs. We weren't allowed to have normal conversations with the school; we could only send emails. So, we had to send emails about everything our daughter needed for our health and education. We were going through the school's formal complaints policy, and then on the 20th of December, there's a knock on the door. It was a police officer. He showed up completely out of the blue. He told me in no uncertain terms not to contact the school, not to speak to anybody about the head teacher recruitment issue. He even told me to take my daughter out of the school.
In the end, we gave up. I suppose we took Sasha out of the school. We arranged a transfer to another local primary school. Sasha's last day at Cy Hill was the 24th of January. Five days later, the police turned up. When we were finally interviewed, the detective, who'd had no previous involvement with the case, it turned out not to have any evidence of those alleged crimes. He had no documents, he had no firsthand accounts, he just had a vague statement from the acting head teacher at the school. It was Kafkaesque, it was surreal, it was bizarre, it was horrific. Eventually, we were put on police bail and discharged at midnight. We got a 75b cab back to our house in Bournwood. About two or three days later, a kind of PTSD began to kick in. I mean, did that really happen? Even now, two months later, when I see a police car go by somewhere near our house, I shudder. I think, are they coming back for us again?
Eventually, we got a call from the detective in charge of the case. He said to Roslyn, "We're taking it no further. I have found no evidence for these offenses." And that was it. It was over. And even now, we still don't know what we're meant to have said or done which was so terrible or justified sending six police officers to our house. I don't know if we're the first parents to get our collars felt by the police for putting a school's nose out of joint, but I hope we're the last.
Hertfordshire Police has said, "Following reports of harassment and malicious communications, which are criminal offenses, a man and a woman from Bournwood, both aged in their 40s, were arrested on Wednesday, January 29th. The arrests were necessary to fully investigate the allegations, as is routine in these types of matters. Following further investigations, officers deemed that no further action should be taken due to insufficient evidence."
A spokesperson for Hartford County Council said, "An interim head was appointed for the one term to allow time for a proper recruitment process to be carried out. The role was advertised publicly, and the recruitment was supported by external professional advisers. We are confident that this was a fair, transparent, and timely process."
A Cy Hill Primary School spokesperson has said, "We sought advice from the police following a high volume of direct correspondence and public social media posts from two parents, as this was becoming upsetting for staff, parents, and governors. We're always happy for parents to raise concerns, but we do ask that they do this in a suitable way and in line with the school's published complaints procedure."