Outside City and Islington College on Monday, 200 students gathered following a mass walk-out to protest new security measures at the school, which students have described as “stop and search”. This follows the introduction of random searches at the entrance of the college on 28 February.
Students took to the streets chanting “stop the search” and “stop criminalising students” as passing cars honked in support.
This latest student lead protest comes as demonstrations take place across London in support of “Child Q”, a 15-year-old black girl who was subjected to strip-search at a Hackney school.
Monday’s protest has had good support, according to Rosie Kurnaz, Young Mayor of Islington and student president.
Students are now required to scan their card upon arrival for class whereby a system “randomly selects” 10-20% of students for search.
While the selection system is itself random, pupils such as A-level student Aji, questioned why management chose to implement this policy in a majority black college despite the lack of violent incidents.
Many students added that the process of being searched was humiliating, reporting that they were pulled aside and made to wait while holding a yellow sign indicating that they had been selected.
Multiple female students also reported that they had been searched by male members of security staff, which made them extremely uncomfortable. They added that students were threatened with suspension if they did not consent to the search.
‘MANAGEMENT doesn’t know who we are and hasn’t made an effort to see what makes us feel safe’
Capital City College Group’s previous search and restrain policy, as seen by Islington Now, allowed students to be searched only if staff had “reasonable grounds for suspecting that a learner is in possession of a prohibited item” and that “you must be the same sex as the learner being searched”.
A representative for the college insisted that “that policy is not used for these random security checks”.
The College cited a rise in knife crime as the reason for the new measures, with a representative for the College saying that “This year, there have been at least four knife incidents involving students of this and other local colleges students”. However, the representative also admitted that “we aren’t aware of blades being brought into this college building”
“Up until two weeks ago I felt it was quite safe,” said Ashton Milton, who sits as a student on the board of Capital City College Group, “now I’m in fear that I’m going to be stopped and searched randomly.”
Milton added that, despite the colleges claims otherwise, he and other students had not been informed of the policy. Instead, students were simply greeted at the gate by new security measures without warning.
Sol Persuad is a student at City and Islington and works with the Waltham Forest Stop and Search Group. He said: “management doesn’t know who we are and hasn’t made an effort to see what makes us feel safe. This isn’t going to solve the problem.”
I am a freelance journalist, currently studying a MA in Newspaper Journalism at City, University of London. Interested in all things tech and science.
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