'It was just gossip' How one school's parent WhatsApp group led to arrests

Before it catapulted a small school community in London's commuter belt into the centre of a global news story, the year 4 class WhatsApp group at Cowley Hill school in Borehamwood was unremarkable.

- Alexandra Topping

"It was mum gossip, you know?" said one member, Sarah, who asked to use a pseudonym. “A bit juicy, but it wasn't anything nasty.”

A conversation and controversy that started in the unofficial parent chat culminated in the arrests of two parents in the Hertfordshire town, sparking debate about police overreach, the right to free speech and the relationship between schools and parents. The saga was covered around the world, discussed in parliament and drew the attention of Elon Musk on X, who appears to have viewed it as grounds for a “political revolution”.

It also raised a question that might feel familiar to many whose phones get overtaken by the school group chat: what's the difference between a concerned parent, a busybody and someone who should face the full force of the law? Inevitably, it also featured a doorbell cam.

On a micro level, its impact has been seismic. “A lot of parents don’t talk to each other any more,” said Sarah. “It feels like you’re back in the playground. You feel like you can’t voice an opinion without people ganging up on you.”

This week the parents at Cowley Hill again found themselves caught in a surreal fishbowl after Maxie Allen and Rosalind Levine, the couple at the centre of the row, revealed they had been given a £20,000 payout by Hertfordshire police, who admitted they had been wrongfully arrested and detained in January. The force said there had been no issues of misconduct by its officers, but that the legal test for arrest had not been met.