In the UK, a mother and father were arrested on suspicion of “harassment and malicious communication” after criticizing their daughter’s primary school.

Parents criticizing the primary school of their 9-year-old daughter were arrested in the UK.

According to the British newspaper Times, Maxie Allen and his wife Rosalind Levine mentioned that they were banned from entering the Cowley Hill Primary School in Hertfordshire after criticizing the school’s headteacher and management in a parent’s WhatsApp group. The school administration claimed that they sought advice from the police because they considered the “high volume direct messages and public social media posts” to be distressing for staff, parents, and executives. Hertfordshire police stated that the arrests were routine when such allegations needed to be thoroughly investigated. The police added, “After further inquiries, officers decided not to take further action due to insufficient evidence.”

“WAS IT A TERRORIST CELL? A DRUG DEPOT?” Allen, one of the Times Radio producers, stated that six police officers came to their home on January 29 and told Sky News, “What is this operation? Is it a terrorist cell, or a drug depot they are raiding? No, it was two parents who had a dispute with the school.” Allen had reportedly applied for a new headteacher for the school in May 2024, but his requests were denied. Subsequently, the school’s administrators warned parents about “provocative and defamatory” comments on social media by sending a letter, indicating that the school would take action against anyone causing discord.

BLock access to the school building was banned Times reported that Allen and Levine communicated that they did not believe the warnings in a private WhatsApp group, prompting the school to block their access to the school building. Following the ban, the couple stated that they regularly sent emails to the school about their disabled daughter’s needs. According to The Times, an official had warned the family in December to take Sascha out of school, which the family did the next month, a week before the arrests. Allen stated that neither he nor Levine engaged in harassment and they were not informed of which communication constituted a crime. Levine, in her statement to Sky News, said the incident was “unexplained” to her. She said, “We cannot understand what happened; it makes no sense. We had a few investigations, joked in a WhatsApp group, and then got arrested.”