Parents arrested after complaining about school on WhatsApp say police have paid £20k

A couple were unlawfully arrested after making allegations about their daughter's primary school, including comments made in a WhatsApp group chat.

Hertfordshire Police accepted responsibility after Rosalind Levine and Maxie Allen were wrongly detained for 11 hours on suspicion of bullying and unlawful communications.

'We were just so happy that Hertfordshire Constabulary had accepted that this shouldn't have happened,' Mr Allen told the BBC.

Hertfordshire Police stated that the 'legal inquiry into the necessity of arrest was not completed' in this case, but noted that there were no allegations of misconduct involving any individual officer.

Mr Allen said the couple were relieved to learn that the force had admitted they had been wrongfully arrested.

'It was a very emotional moment for us to get the news from the police a few days ago,' Mr Allen said. He added that the damages and legal costs paid by the police were significant. 'But for us, the most important thing was the fact that the detention was unlawful. That's what mattered most to us.'

The Arrest

Ms Levine described how six officers turned up at the family's house on 29 January and arrested her in front of one of the couple's children, who was three years old.

'I knew that I hadn't done any of those things when they read out the list of things I was being arrested for: malicious communications, bullying, and causing a nuisance on the school premises,' she said. 'I was completely shocked and knew that they would have no evidence against us.'

According to The Times, the couple said they had been refused entry to Cowley Hill Primary School in Borehamwood after questioning the recruitment process and criticising the leadership in a WhatsApp group for parents.

Following the ban, the parents said they emailed the school 'regularly' regarding the provision of services related to their daughter's health, specifically her epilepsy and neurodivergence.

The school sought assistance from the police after claiming it had received a 'serious amount of direct correspondence and public social media messages' which had been upsetting for teachers, parents, and governors.

In December, a police officer sent a warning to the family, advising them to remove their daughter from the school, which they did the following month. Mr Allen said six police officers arrived at his house a week after that, on 29 January.

'Inflammatory Remarks'

Mr Allen, a Times Radio producer and Liberal Democrat councillor on Hertsmere Borough Council, said he never used offensive or threatening words, 'even in private'.

He said the chair of governors had sent a letter alerting all parents, warning them of what he described as 'inflammatory remarks' on social media.

'They never told us what [the remarks were]... they never disclosed the WhatsApps that they had cited,' Mr Allen said. 'But when we looked back, the most interesting thing we could find was Rosalind calling one senior person at the school a "control freak", and that was the worst remark we could find.'

Ms Levine said the experience had changed her attitude towards the police and left her feeling very upset.

'I don't trust them [the police],' she said. 'I was mainly angry for my children.'

Mr Allen, who was previously a governor at the school, believed that some people may have turned against him after he questioned the appointment of a new headteacher.

'We asked some questions about the headteacher recruitment process because I had been a governor of the school,' he said. 'I knew how the school was supposed to work, and I wanted it to be done properly.'

Jonathan Ash-Edwards, the Police and Crime Commissioner for Hertfordshire, said: 'There has obviously been a fundamental breakdown in the school-parent relationship that should not have arisen.'