"Met Police and headteacher ignored evidence my son was being groomed to sell cocaine and cannabis"

The schoolchild was allegedly called a “Somalian monkey” by a staff member and was often beaten up.

The East London mum fears other children may have been recruited.

Zeinab, whose name we have changed to protect her, said the WhatsApp messages were straightforward evidence children were being asked for drug dealing. “You want to country sell weed and cocaine,” it said, “First time £40-50, 2 weeks £2,000-4,000 pounds.” The offer was posted in a group created by a student at New Woodlands School in Bromley for his peers. Zeinab’s son was one of the boys included in the chat, and she found it through his phone.

Scrolling down, she saw another child had said they were interested in “going country”, the street slang for county lines drug dealing-where sellers from urban locations travel to rural areas to do business. “Go to Peckham, I’m going to tell them”, Was the reply. “They will give you a shank knife to go country with.”

Alarmed, she did what any worried parent would do, contact the police and the school. However, several months on, she has heard nothing from either party about the incident and claims the school, a specialist school for kids with more learning needs, said there was insufficient evidence to act on.

The WhatsApp conversations Zeinab shared with the police.

The Metropolitan Police, she claims, said they were powerless to act. “It’s just messages,” they allegedly told her. “We wish we could do more, but when it’s minors involved, there's not much that can be done.”

Zeinab claims showed the WhatsApp exchange to police while reporting a separate incident and was allegedly only given one crime reference number. When My London contacted the Metropolitan Police claimed to have checked its systems, but the intelligence relating to the drug dealing messages had not been recorded.

According to the mum, the school's position is that it investigated the matter, and there was insufficient evidence of county lines recruitment. In a statement to My London, New Woodlands School’s headteacher said robust safeguarding systems were in place. She added that a 2019 Ofsted report supported this, which found leaders, staff, and governors were “aware of the risks that pupils face” and worked “effectively with pupils to build their resilience and understanding of how to keep themselves safe”.

The messages promised children would earn significant sums.

The WhatsApp messages are not the only allegation of safeguarding issue Zeinab is levelling against the school. She has also accused them of not acting when a staff member “racially abused” her son and allegedly justifying “repeated acts of violence” by other children against him.

The incident that most upset Zeinab was when she said her son came home and told her there had been an altercation with a member of staff, who allegedly called him a “Somalian monkey” and “Somalian bitch.” It was something that would have disturbed her coming from a student, but allegedly coming from a member of staff’s beggared belief.

“I wish I were eighteen,” he’d told her when he got home from school, “then I’d be able to do something about it.” When she asked what he meant, he told her the slurs that had been allegedly hurled in his direction. But when Zeinab visited the school, she claims they disputed her version of events.

Zeinab said: "Their response was, he had called them a monkey first, and the staff member responded to him in retaliation. I said they are an adult, and my son is a child. They know working in these fields with vulnerable children, you will get the odd child saying little comments here and there; it happens often.”

Unhappy with the school’s response, she went to the police. In her view, a hate crime had been committed. Again, however, she claims the force was unwilling to investigate. “I was disappointed with the police because there was another child who was a witness,” she said, “the police come back saying, you know, the other child's parents said he is not going to supply a statement. The only choice is to invite the staff member for an interview, but it will be your child's words against theirs. So, the best thing would be to close the case because there is not much we can do. “She is perplexed why they did not even try to speak to the staff member.

When asked by My London about the incident, a spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police said: “On March 25th, police received an allegation of racially aggravated harassment relating to an incident that happened at a school in Bromley on October 7th, 2021.

“The incident involved a male pupil who alleged a racist comment was made to him by a staff member. Officers began an investigation, but no independent witness would support the police enquiry. After being informed of this in April, the child's mother withdrew her request for police action.”

Since withdrawing her request, Zeinab contacted the police again and asked them to investigate, which they agreed to do. When My London approached the Metropolitan Police about this, they said there was nothing had changed on this, and we have nothing further to add.

New Woodlands School did not comment on this incident specifically but said that all complaints by Zeinab had been “investigated by the school, and everything is satisfactory.”

Zeinab claims the school’s response followed a lengthier pattern of blaming her son every time he came home injured or abused. She has a collection of images of bruises on his body inflicted by other children at New Woodlands School. On another occasion, her son had come wet, and she discovered a voice note from another child, played to My London, claiming to have “made him sit in a fucking urinal.”

“He was coming home bruised, showing me his injuries, and I’m not being informed,” she added. “When I did go in for a meeting, they would say, the other kids react physically when your son is verbally abusive. As if that makes it okay for him to be physically attacked.”

Emails seen by My London showed the school did suggest that other students “lashed out” because of verbal abuse by Zeinab’s son. However, they also stress that this behaviour was “unacceptable” and resulted in sanctions for the children involved.

She has documented all the injuries her son has sustained and questioned the school has not acted in some cases. Zeinab feels her son has been labelled by staff and is not treated fairly. All she says she wants is a sense of due purpose; “I felt very disregarded when raising serious concerns, a lot of the times he was being dealt with unfairly. I feel that he has been labelled as a ‘bad kid.’”

In messages from the school responding to her sharing images of her son’s injuries, the mother was told that “not every scratch, bump etc.” would be escalated. Still, the staff were bound to follow specific procedures when a child was injured. They also offered to examine the matter in greater detail where she felt issues had not been dealt with.

The mother acknowledges that because of his ADHD, he can sometimes pose challenging behaviour. Still, she claims that when he has expressed feelings of fear and anxiety, members of staff doubt their sincerity.

When Zeinab told a member of staff that her son had been suffering from “severe night terrors” and was scared to travel to school, in texts seen by My London, the New Woodlands School employee told her to “watch out for the excuses” because in their view, he “seemed fine.” These messages were exchanged after another child had assaulted her son after a disagreement.

Zeinab’s concerns about the environment her son was going into were there from the start. When she first visited the high gates and heavy doors, she thought of prison. She was even more alarmed when she allegedly saw teachers locking children in the classrooms. A school representative told My London they looked to avoid locking classrooms but occasionally did so; they said this was still in compliance with fire safety regulations.

The result is Zeinab has become responsible for her son’s education. She must catch him up with learning that she claims should have been done years before. On top of that, she said he still suffers from the trauma of the alleged assaults and abuse he suffered at New Woodlands School.

“We've had a healing process for him,” she continued, “he has been through a lot. It has been an awful experience. I've tried to do home education, but the school has not done much learning because they were so focused on managing the behaviour. He has missed an awful lot, and his confidence in learning is not there. So, I am just building that backup. The first day I tried to teach him, he broke down in tears and was overwhelmed.”

Discussing the points raised in this article, headteacher Carlie Warner said: “New Woodlands is a specialist school for children and young people with specific and challenging social, mental and emotional health needs. It was judged Good at its last Ofsted inspection in 2019, and during the inspection, it was noted that: “Safeguarding is effective. Leaders, staff, and governors are clear about their safeguarding responsibilities. They are acutely aware of the risks that pupils face. They collaborate effectively with pupils to build their resilience and understanding of how to keep themselves safe.”

“We are disappointed that Zeinab feels her son was poorly supported. We recognise that her son has needs and have worked hard to keep the child and family. The child was enrolled without parental consent.

“The school has investigated all the points raised, and everything is satisfactory. No official complaints have been made to the school.”