A teacher has been barred from teaching indefinitely after admitting to drinking on the job and ramming her car into a school gate.

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

Ms Stant also told a disciplinary panel that in 2020, while working at a school in Bagworth, Leicestershire, she crashed her car into an entry gate and bollard.

They determined that she engaged in improper professional conduct and brought the profession into contempt.

Ms Stant did not attend the Teaching Regulation Agency (TRO) hearing, but the panel stated that she admitted the charges and that they constituted inappropriate conduct.

The hearing was told that she would be engaged at Oakwood Community School in Bagworth, an all-through independent special school, by the end of October 2020.

On November 25 of same year, she was accused of driving at the entrance gate and flaming a bollard.

She was apparently seen hyperventilating, unsteady on her feet, and smelt of alcohol, and she was discovered with a small, unopened bottle of wine in her coat pocket.

A witness stated that they had received several calls from Ms Stant claiming that she was sick and had crashed with a taxi on her way to work.

She resigned later that day.

Ms Stant was allegedly noticed visiting Friars Academy on May 1, 2024, stumbling, unsteady on her feet, and smelling of alcohol.

The panel was informed she had an alcohol-filled water bottle, despite Ms Stant telling the school at the time that it had been spiked in an attempt to “jeopardise her employment.” She resigned on the same day.

According to panel decision maker Sarah Buxcey’s assessment, Ms Stant purposefully left out her job at Oakwood from her application to Friars Academy.

Ms Buxcey stated that she had “indicated a level of insight and remorse” and had communicated with the TRO. The restriction will be reconsidered in three years, and Ms Stant has 28 days to challenge the verdict.

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