Quite a lot of pictures to kick off this article. Starting with the picture on the left which features six of Hertfordshire’s finest, arriving in two squad cars and a police van, to arrest Allen and Rosalind Levine for being “disparaging” about their local school management. I have a link to Fiona Hamilton’s Times article below and will leave it to you to get into the weeds of the story but it appears that Allen and Rosalind Levine had a less than harmonious relationship with Jackie Spriggs, the chair of governors at their child’s school. It seems that as a result the Levines were barred from the school, missing their 9 year olds Christmas play performance and the parent-teacher night. More seriously, the Levines daughter, Sasha, suffers from ‘ epilepsy and is neurodivergent and registered disabled’ and the parents were denied a meeting with her teacher to ensure she knew
how to administer medication in an emergency. A key element in this saga is that the Levines still don’t know what the offending communication was that triggered the arrest. The Times asked the school, the local council and police for information about the quantity of emails and for examples of what constituted malicious communications. All three declined to give details.(The Times, 29/03/25)
However, prior to the arrest, there was a communication from Chairperson Spriggs demanding that, “inflammatory and disparaging comments made on social media” should stop. The Levines assume that this refers to comments made on a private WhatsApp parents group and are astonished the school authorities should think that it had the power to censor free speech in this manner. The Levines supplied some examples of the messages on the WhatsApp platform (Excerpt above). In the absence of any evidence to the contrary from the authorities, you would have to say that those who called in the police must be very thin skinned to be offended by these rather mild messages.
Hertfordshire police issued a statement saying, “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.” (The Times, 29/03/25) Dixon of Dock Green would have been shocked at this description of modern police procedure. Surely the correct process is to first review the complaint, then if it has merit, the police would gather supporting evidence and finally arrest the offenders. In this case, six police officers arrested the parents, in front of their children, kept them in a cell late in to the night and five weeks later decided that there wasn’t enough evidence to proceed!! If this is how the police conduct investigations then there should be an urgent review of their powers of arrest. Aside from this and putting aside the issue of freedom of speech and the trauma that the family experienced, WHAT A MONUMENTAL WASTE OF TIME AND RESOURCES!
This action has rightly brought some bad press coverage for Herts police, not only for their heavy handed approach to free speech but also from angry citizens who have been constantly told that the police are under resourced and therefore unable to respond to minor offenses. In the face of rising crime, as shown by the graph above, ordinary citizens are angry over, what they see as wasting resources on policing gossip. Typical of the comments responding to Hamilton’s article is the one from S Clarke.
6 officers attending – 5 weeks of enquiries. Nothing more than simple criticism. No threats, profanities or racism. My burglary attempt ( door damaged window broken ) no attendance of an officer at all, scenes of crime civilian attended 5 days later No forensics. No further enquiries. How did we get here ? (The Times, 29/03/25)
They see a reluctance by the police, to bend the trend downwards by tackling crime head on but preferring to send a posse to arrest two law abiding people in a parent/school dispute. Even the new Chief Constable, whilst backing the posse, thought that it could have been handled differently.
The truth is that, with the exception of credible threats of violence, the police should not be involved in deciding what is or, isn’t free speech. In this case, the test is that neither the School, the Counsel or Police could give examples of the criminally offensive speech.
Jonathan Ash-Edwards, the police and crime commissioner for Hertfordshire, condemned the arrest of the parents. “While people should be courteous and go through the proper channels when raising concerns about a public service, the public should be able to express their views without worrying they’ll get a knock at the door,” Mr Ash-Edwards said. (The Times, 29/03/25)
There is already a plethora of laws restricting speech in the UK. The Public Order Act 1986 makes it an offence for a person to use “threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviours that causes, or is likely to cause, another person harassment, alarm or distress” (CARE) The Terrorism Act of 2006; The Communications Act of 2003; the Human Rights Act of 1998 whilst granting universal free expression is restricted by, “the interests of national security, territorial integrity or public safety, for the prevention of disorder or crime, for the protection of health or morals, for the protection of the reputation or rights of others, for preventing the disclosure of information received in confidence, or for maintaining the authority and impartiality of the judiciary”. (HOPE, 14/08/20) Quite a lot of legislation and more is to come. Aside from terrorism and criminality the issue of name calling and hurt feelings should be settled at the lowest level by arbitration under the supervision of the civil courts. The Police have no business getting involved in non violent disputes between parents and School Boards. The Civil Courts have adequate, equitable powers to resolve this sort of issue. Perhaps if the government provided a low cost civil alternative and challenged the police to improve their clear up rates, I think everyone would be better served.
Sources
Fiona Hamilton, 29/03/25, The Times, Police arrest parents who complained in school WhatsApp group, https://www.thetimes.com/uk/education/article/police-arrest-parents-who-complained-in-school-whatsapp-group-6r6lb2fgn
Tim Sigsworth, 01/04/25, Police chief defends force that arrested WhatsApp row parents https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/04/01/police-chief-defends-arrest-whatsapp-school-row-parents/
Juliana Rordorf , 14 08 20, HOPE, https://hopenothate.org.uk/2020/08/14/free-speech-laws-in-the-uk-an-overview/
James Mildred, Free Speech in the UK: what does the law actually say? https://care.org.uk/cause/freedom-of-speech/free-speech-law
