School disputes: a police matter?

If the story of Maxie Allen and Rosalind Levine’s arrest had broken a few days later, “you’d think it was an April Fool”, said Toby Young in The Times. In late January, six uniformed police officers turned up at their house in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire. They detained them in front of their three-year-old daughter, then took them to a police station and locked them in a cell for 11 hours.

The reason for all this? Their elder daughter’s primary school, Cowley Hill, had lodged a complaint after the couple criticised its recruiting process for the new head. The school also complained that the pair had been “casting aspersions” on the chair of governors in a WhatsApp group. “Instead of telling the school that this was not a police matter – or, indeed, just guffawing”, Hertfordshire Police questioned the couple on suspicion of harassment, sending malicious communications and causing a nuisance. After a five-week investigation, the couple were told that no further action would be taken.