Teacher Suspended For Being ‘Falling Down Drunk’ In Class

PRIMARY SCHOOL TEACHER suspended for being ‘falling down drunk’ in class

Angela Simonson, 66, was suspended from working as a primary school teacher by an Education Workforce Council (EWC) panel for two years after reports emerged accusing her of being drunk at school. The panel said that the disgraced teacher will have to prove she is fit to return to work after her suspension following her “reprehensible behaviour.”

According to WalesOnline, the panel heard that the Year 4 teacher at Central Primary School in Port Talbot, Wales, was “slurring, staggering and stinking of drink” on December 8, 2014.

Christine Jarvis, a former lunchtime supervisor at the school told the EWC:

“She didn’t do what she usually did – instead of coming to the front of the line of children she leaned against the wall, she staggered to the classroom.

“She knocked into one of the children, waved her hands in the air and leaned against the wall.

“She was quite literally falling over drunk”.

Ms Simonson didn’t attend the hearing in person but prepared a statement which claimed that she “could neither recall nor explain” the incident, and her lawyers argued that the educator had drunk three quarters of a bottle of wine the previous night, and took a swig of beer that morning because she was thirsty. They also attributed her bad breath to a low-carb diet and her unsteadiness to medication she was taking.

When the panel heard that officials discovered an open can of beer under the sink in Ms Simonson’s classroom, where any of her young students could have easily come across it, the legal team argued that the classroom isn’t locked and anyone could have planted the alcohol there.

However, the EWC ruled that the educator had displayed a “lack of integrity” and “unacceptable professional conduct”.

In her closing remarks, Presenting Officer Cadi Dewi said: “It was morally reprehensible behaviour and it was very clearly unacceptable.”

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