Dear Child Q,
I’m going to call you Little Sister because I don’t know your name and “Child Q” makes it feel as though you are a person untethered to a family, a community and that is far from the truth. Aside from your mother and aunty, who sound like incredible women, I wanted you to know that you are loved and that so many of us care that you want to feel safe again.
Little Sister, I am so sorry that this was allowed to happen to you by people whose job it is to protect you. I am so sorry that your natural hair and your beautiful black skin meant that you were targeted; first accused of being in possession of drugs that neither the teachers nor the police found and then made to endure one of the “most intrusive forms of police searches.” I am so sorry that you were denied the opportunity to have your mother present.
Little Sister, I can only imagine how terrified and confused and lonely you must have been. They treated you like an adult criminal and you were a schoolchild. You deserved so much more care and grace than you were afforded. I’m devastated that in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests that swept the world in 2020 your safety and right to bodily autonomy was violated by people who didn’t truly recognise your humanity and that you were a child.
One of the teachers of the school said “In hindsight I put my trust in the law; I know now that I need to understand the law better...” Little, Sister, I am so sorry that your life was entrusted to education professionals who, in the midst of global unrest specifically about the racism of police and state institutions, did not recognise the real danger posed to your wellbeing by leaving you, a black child, in the care of police officers from a police force known to be institutionally racist. I am so desperately sorry that this country’s inability to reconcile the racism of its history and institutions put you in such immediate danger.
Little Sister, I want nothing more than for you to have access to all the very best mental health treatment to help facilitate your healing from what was an incredibly traumatic, intrusive incident. It’s okay to need help. It’s okay to reach out. It’s okay to have hard days. I love that you never want this to happen to anyone ever again but Little Sister, it should have never happened to you. It’s noble to want to protect others. However, right now it’s about you.
My hope for you is that you grow up and become everything you ever dreamed you would. I will be praying for you, Little Sister, that despite the failure of the adults charged with your care that you will overcome this evil that was done to you and not lose your softness then go on to rediscover your light. You spoke of feeling locked in a box and that it is collapsing around you. All you are and all you will grow to be cannot be contained by that box. It’s not that the box isn’t real, your experience makes it clear that it is a very real thing. But the black girl you are today and the black woman you will grow to become will shatter that box.
We see you Little Sister and we will work to ensure that all the people that allowed this to happen will be held responsible, according to your desire.
Love always,
Dani x