Teacher ban for drinking and crashing into gates

A teacher has been banned from the profession indefinitely after she admitted drinking on the job and crashing her car into a school entrance gate.

Michelle Stant, 51, was discovered with a water bottle containing alcohol while teaching at Friars Academy, a special education school in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, in May 2024.

A misconduct panel was also told Ms Stant drove her car into an entrance gate and bollard while working at a school in Bagworth, Leicestershire, in 2020.

They concluded she was guilty of unacceptable professional conduct and of bringing the profession into disrepute.

Ms Stant did not attend the Teaching Regulation Agency (TRO) hearing, but the panel said she had admitted the allegations and that they amounted to unacceptable conduct.

The hearing was told she was employed at Oakwood Community School in Bagworth - an all-through independent special school - at the end of October 2020.

She was accused of driving at the entrance gate and lighting bollard on 25 November that year.

She was allegedly observed to be hyperventilating, unsteady on her feet and smelling of alcohol, and was found with a small, unopened bottle of wine in her coat pocket.

A witness said they had received a number of calls from Ms Stant saying that she had been sick and that she had collided with a taxi on the way to work.

She resigned later that day.

On 1 May 2024, Ms Stant was allegedly observed to be stumbling, unsteady on her feet, and smelling of alcohol at Friars Academy.

The panel was told she had a water bottle containing alcohol - although Ms Stant told the school at the time it had been spiked in an attempt to "jeopardise her employment".

She also resigned on the same day.

Panel decision maker Sarah Buxcey wrote in her report that Ms Stant deliberately omitted her employment at Oakwood from her application to Friars Academy.

Although Ms Buxcey said she had "indicated a level of insight and remorse" and had engaged with the TRO.

The ban can be reviewed in three years time and Ms Stant has 28 days to appeal the decision.