The parents of a nine-year-old girl have said they were held at a police station for 11 hours because they complained about their daughter’s primary school.
Maxie Allen and his partner, Rosalind Levine, said they were arrested and detained on suspicion of harassment, malicious communications and causing a nuisance on school property.
The couple said they had previously been banned from entering Cowley Hill primary school in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire after criticising the school’s headteacher and leadership in a parents’ WhatsApp group, according to the Times.
The school said it had “sought advice from police” after a “high volume of direct correspondence and public social media posts” that they claimed had become upsetting for staff, parents and governors.
Hertfordshire police said 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,” they added.
Allen, a Times Radio producer, said six police officers turned up at his home on 29 January.
He told Sky News: “When you watch the doorbell footage, you think, what are these six police officers doing? What is this operation?
“Is it a terror cell, is it a drug den they’re about to raid? No, it was two parents in a dispute with the school. I would like to know how [Hertfordshire police] made that decision, that that was the appropriate and necessary operation.”
Allen had reportedly communicated to the school in May 2024 regarding the recruitment of a new headteacher but his queries were rejected.
The school’s governors then reportedly wrote to the parent body about “inflammatory and defamatory” comments on social media, warning that the school would take action against anyone who caused “disharmony”.
The Times reported that Allen and Levine communicated disbelief about the warnings on a private WhatsApp group, and the school subsequently banned them from entering its premises. After their ban, the pair said they emailed the school “regularly” about the needs of their daughter, who is disabled.
An officer warned the family in December, telling them to remove Sascha from the school, which they did the following month, a week before the arrests, The Times reported.
Allen claimed he and Levine were not abusive and were never told which communications were criminal, which they said was “completely Kafkaesque”.
Levine told Sky News that the incident remains “inexplicable” to her. “We cannot fathom what happened; it doesn’t make any sense. We made a few inquiries, we had a bit of banter on a WhatsApp group, and then we were arrested,” she said.
A spokesperson for Cowley Hill primary school told the Times that they’re happy for parents to raise concerns as long as they do it in a “suitable” way.
Hertfordshire constabulary added: “Following reports of harassment and malicious communications, which are criminal offences, a man and a woman from Borehamwood, both aged in their 40s, were arrested on Wednesday 29 January.
“In relation to the police visit on 20 December, a complaint was submitted which was reviewed by our Professional Standards Department. It was deemed that the service provided by officers was appropriate.”
