Searching Questions

Published: May 25, 2022, 10:17 a.m.

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Why are a disproportionate number of black children being strip searched? File on 4 hears from teenagers taken in for a \\u2018strippy\\u2019 so often, it\\u2019s become part of life.\\nThe strip search of \\u2018Child Q\\u2019, a fifteen year old black girl in a London school, was headline news, sparking outrage and official inquiries. Her teachers claimed she smelled of cannabis, but no drugs were ever found. \\nA safeguarding report said racism a likely influencing factor in Child Q\\u2019s ordeal. The Metropolitan police admitted the strip search should never have happened. \\nBut for some black girls and boys, humiliating \\u2013 and sometimes unlawful \\u2013 strip searches are nothing new.\\nFile on 4 hears from young people who\\u2019ve been strip searched so often they\\u2019ve lost count \\u2013 in their bedrooms, in children\\u2019s homes, and in the back of police vans.\\nWe know children from ethnic minorities are being disproportionately strip searched. \\nFile on 4 can reveal that in the last five years, on average fifty children a week were strip searched in England and Wales - a disproportionate number of them from ethnic minorities.

Reporter: Jane Deith\\nProducer: Hayley Mortimer \\nJournalism Assistant: Tim Fernley\\nProduction Co-ordinator: Sarah Payton\\nEditor: Carl Johnston

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