The child at the heart of a racism scandal, sparked after she was subjected to a strip-search at school that involved exposure of intimate body parts, has launched legal proceedings against the Metropolitan police and her school. The black schoolgirl known only as Child Q thanked the “thousands of people across the world” who offered her support, after it emerged this week that she was strip-searched by officers in her school when she was 15 without parental consent and in the knowledge that she was menstruating. It came as a group of prominent black men and women sent a letter to the Met’s deputy commissioner, Sir Stephen House, saying they longed “for a day when Black people do not feel unsafe” in the presence of police and called for “immediate and decisive action” to hold to account the officers who were involved. In a statement issued by her lawyers, the girl said that after everything she had been through “I know I am not alone”. Her mother said the family hoped an Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) investigation would mean the officers involved were “individually held to account and face real consequences for what they have done”. She added that the family expected the school to reflect on the findings of a report by Hackney council and take necessary action against staff members involved. Footage posted on social media purported to show pupils protesting inside the school involved on Friday. Hundreds of people including Labour MP Diane Abbott attended a demonstration on Friday outside Stoke Newington police station in north-east London in support of Child Q. Chants of “Racist cops, out of schools” were heard by the crowd while signs reading “We say no to police in schools” and “No to racist police” were held aloft. A protest was also held in Manchester where demonstrators held signs which read “No police in schools”. The organisation Kids of Colour wrote on Twitter: “Thank you to Manchester for showing up! We stood in solidarity with Child Q and said #NoPoliceInSchools and abolition in our lifetime”. The Windrush campaigner Patrick Vernon tweeted that there will be a solidarity rally at Hackney town hall in London on Sunday from 2pm. Chanel Dolcy, a solicitor at Bhatt Murphy, which is representing the family in proceedings against the police, said Child Q had launched civil proceedings against the Metropolitan police and her school seeking to hold both institutions to account “to ensure this never happens again to any other child”. She added: “The Metropolitan police has seemed incapable of reform for generations, and it is difficult to say it will ever change.” Florence Cole, representing Child Q against the school, said there was “an ongoing correspondence” between the family and school that had continued since the complaint was made in 2020. “This is an appalling, shocking case which illustrates wider problems in schools and communities about the treatment of black children which unfortunately is systemic; and the lack of safeguarding and the failure to recognise the ripple effects of trauma that follows, long after such an ordeal.” Pressure is growing on the Met to acknowledge and address fury and dismay within black communities after an official investigation found racism was likely to have been an “influencing factor” in the officers’ actions. A letter signed by more than a dozen public figures, including the football pundit Ian Wright and the chief business officer of Condé Nast Britain, Vanessa Kingori, accused the Metropolitan police of endemic racism on Friday. On Thursday, the equalities minister, Kemi Badenoch, condemned the strip-search as she presented the government’s strategy for tackling racial disparities in the UK. She called it an “appalling incident”, but said the public backlash against the incident shows the UK is “a country that cares about ethnic minorities”. The Metropolitan police has apologised for what a senior officer described as the child’s “truly regrettable” treatment. The letter, organised by Five X More black maternal health campaigner Atinuke Awe, expresses a “collective devastation” for Child Q, saying: “We feel her pain and trauma throughout our community and we long for a day when Black people do not feel unsafe in your presence.” The letter continues: “People from Black communities do not […] have trust or faith that the police will treat people from these communities fairly and without bias.” The letter is signed by entertainment figures including the singer-songwriter Jamelia, Little Mix’s Leigh-Anne Pinnock, singer and television presenter Rochelle Humes and actor and model Jodie Turner-Smith, as well as MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy, the leader of the Women’s Equality party, Mandu Reid, the writer Candice Carty-Williams and the academic Kehinde Andrews. Campaigners Shola Mos-Shogbamimu, Clotilde Abe from Five X More, Carina White of Black Mums Upfront, Osha Daley of Pregnant then Screwed, Elliott Rae of Music, Fatherhood and Football and Ben Anderson of Diary of a Dad also added their support.