On Friday, as part of Black History Month, Loleitta Higgins came into school to speak with students about her challenging journey. Loleitta was Staffordshire’s first black female police officer, and only the second black female police officer in the country! She is the longest serving black female police officer – she is still working for Staffordshire police today!
Loleitta shared her journey with the students and we learnt so many interesting things. One of the things we learnt was that as a police woman in the 1970’s she was only given a handbag for protection, not a baton like her male counterparts! She shared that she did face some prejudice through her career as people were not used to seeing someone who looked like her working for the police. She demonstrated perseverance and gained a huge amount of respect by all who know her, even being awarded an MBE by the Queen. Loleitta was certainly a pioneer in the profession and paved the way for others to follow. It was fantastic of her to give up her time to come and speak with students in our school.
Thank you Loleitta, you helped our students to see that they can achieve anything that they put their mind to!
Students comments:
‘I loved the staff educating us about racial inequality during the 1960s, perseverance during a profession as a woman and persuading the people on other communities to support racial equality within expanded communities.’ Arman Singh
‘We need more lessons like this. I liked the fact that we were told about the car crash. It made me want to be a police officer.’ Sukhman
‘The story was inspirational.’ Anmol