Black kids are 6 times more likely to be strip-searched, says UK report

Black children in England and Wales were six times more likely to be strip-searched by police, according to a report being released Monday that found children were failed by those sworn to protect them.

Children's Commissioner Rachel de Souza found nearly 3,000 children were strip-searched between 2018 and mid-2022 and more than half the searches were conducted without an appropriate adult present.

The investigation was launched after a Black 15-year-old girl suspected of having marijuana was strip-searched at a London school in 2020 by two female officers without another adult present. The girl, identified as Child Q, was menstruating and no drugs were found. A previous report said racism was a likely factor for the humiliating search.

The bravery of a girl to speak up about a traumatic thing that happened to her led to the report that found widespread noncompliance of safeguards and evidence of a "deeply concerning practice, de Souza said.

The findings follow a scathing report la