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Julia Leith blamed her unsteadiness on high heels before she was reminded her shoes had flat soles
Ms Leith taught at Judgemeadow Community College in Evington(Image: Google)
A teacher with a drink problem who appeared “erratic, irrational, emotional and confused’ has been banned from the classroom.
Julia Leith worked at the Robert Smyth Academy in Market Harborough and at Judgemeadow Community College in Evington, Leicester, during her career as a teacher.
In one incident in 2017 during an evening event at Judgemeadow, she was so drunk she was slurring her speech and appeared to be disoriented, according to documents from a Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) panel held last month.
Then, during a lunchtime incident at the academy in 2018, her partner had to be called to the school to take her home because she was swaying from side to side and at risk of injury “due to her state of inebriation”.
She was too drunk to call her partner herself. She tried to blame her unsteadiness on her high heels, but the shoes she was wearing had flat soles.
The anonymised TRA papers summarised the evidence of one senior teacher at the academy named as Person D. The document states: “Person F came to her office on 7 December 2018 at approximately 1.30pm and informed her that he suspected Ms Leith to be under the influence and that they needed to get her off the premises as soon as possible.
“Person F and Person D found Person E and went to locate Ms Leith. As they approached the corridor, Ms Leith was swaying from side to side as she was walking.
“Person D escorted Ms Leith away from students and Ms Leith was asked to phone her partner to collect her, but she was “struggling” to do this, so Person D phoned her partner instead.
“Ms Leith was very “up and down”, “emotional”, “slurring”, was unaware what was happening and had a distinct smell about her, which Person D “suspected” was alcohol.
“On the way out, Ms Leith opened an office door, saw Person J and started to hug her.
“Ms Leith [claimed her] instability was due to wearing heels, when Ms Leith was reminded that she was actually wearing flat shoes.”
In her own evidence to the panel, Ms Leith admitted “long-term difficulties with alcohol consumption” and that “between 2015 and 2019 her drinking had increased to problematic levels”.
But she also claimed she had never drank while at work or before going to work – a claim that was rejected by the panel.
They found it most likely that she had certainly been drinking on the day of the December 2018 incident in Market Harborough.
The panel said: “On the balance of probabilities, the panel found it more likely than not that Ms Leith had consumed alcohol prior to attending the school on 7 December 2018.”
Robert Smyth Academy in Market Harborough(Image: Google)
The 60-year-old teacher was found guilty of misconduct and was banned from the profession. But the panel also set a minimum of two years, meaning she will be able to make her first attempt to overturn the ban in January 2028.
The panel said: “There was evidence to support that Ms Leith was a good teacher.
“Whilst the panel considered that Ms Leith had not shown insight into her conduct at this time and there was a high risk of repetition, the panel was mindful that Ms Leith had the potential to learn from her conduct in the future and to take steps to address her previous alcohol consumption issues.
“As Ms Leith’s proven conduct was at the less serious end of the spectrum of misconduct, and she had the potential to make a positive contribution to the teaching profession (after taking appropriate steps to learn from her mistakes), the panel considered that these factors weighed in favour of a shorter period before a review is considered appropriate.”
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