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Parents brand cops as ‘irresponsible’
They want meeting after riot police called to school
PARENTS have branded the response by police who were called to a West Hampstead school last Friday as “disproportionate, illegal and dangerous”.
Now parents of children at Hampstead School in Westbere Road want to hold an emergency meeting with other parents, teachers and the head, to “find out what happened”.
Forty officers, including the Territorial Support unit – a specialist unit who usually deal with rioters – went to Hampstead after 200 students gathered outside the school gates. It is understood pupils from nearby Whitefield School were among the crowd.
A letter to the New Journal, signed by five parents, said: “Parents are calling for an urgent meeting with pupils and teachers to discuss our serious concerns about the police actions and how the school has been responding to the incident so far.
“We feel that the police response was so disproportionate, illegal and dangerous that a meeting should be called as soon as possible. To date the school has not included parents yet it was our children involved.”
Chairman of governors Geoff Berridge said: “I share everybody’s concern. Clearly the wrong police unit were involved. They behaved totally differently to the way local police would have.
“Why was it them? The TSG are usually employed to deal with riots, not school children.
“What they were obviously doing was attempting to clear the street rather than dealing with and attempting to settle the kids concerns, and the fact that there was a melee.”
Mr Szemalikowski has held emergency ‘open door’ meetings with parents both Tuesday and yesterday (Wednesday) evening, and another last Tuesday, Mr Berridge added. He said parents had been sent letters notifying them about the meetings, but that they were passed on via students because post is expensive.
A governors’ meeting takes place on Wednesday.
Parent Kay Chapman, who has two children at Hampstead, aged 11 and 14, said: “We are trying to get justice for the children. We really want other parents to get in touch with us.” She doesn’t want the police to be present at the meeting. Another parent, Roy Martin, 40, who was arrested after he rushed to the school to check on his son Sashon, has filed a complaint against police.
He claims Sashon was punched in the face by an officer.
Hampstead has also made a complaint against the police, after pupils and teachers alleged officers had behaved in a racist and brutal manner. The complaints are being investigated internally by the Metropolitan police’s Directorate of Professional Standards, rather than the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) as previously believed.
A police spokeswoman refused to reveal what their lines of the inquiry into complaints are – because it could “alter” the investigation.
She added the findings could take “weeks and weeks” to be published.
They will not be made public but could be passed on to the IPCC, who will then publish a public report.
When questioned why local police did not attend the incident, she said: “When an officer requests assistance it’s those who are close by that attend.
“The TSG were nearby. It was not asked whether they were the appropriate police to attend.”
The TSG are a specialist response unit within the Metropolitan police who specialise in public disorder such as brawls between football hooligans at matches or terrorist threats.
An IPCC spokesman said: “The Met are still making enquiries so the complaints haven’t been referred to us yet. If they are referred then we will have to decide what our level of involvement will be.”
To contact parents, email hampsteadschoolparents@yahoo.co.uk.
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