Drunk maths teacher who crashed into colleague and fled can keep job

Telegraph

07-05-2025

A maths teacher who crashed into her colleague on her way to work while three times over the limit can keep her job, a tribunal has ruled.
Siobhan Clarke arrived at The Priory Academy in Lincoln, where she taught, in a wrecked car with a cracked windscreen and deflated airbags, a Teaching Regulation Agency panel was told.
At the scene of the accident, she pulled out her bank card thinking it was her phone, before driving her 'crumpled' car onto the school's site.
When the incident was reported to the head teacher, she was found in a classroom smelling of alcohol and 'very muddled'.
She was arrested at the school after police found her to be over the legal drink-drive limit, the hearing was told.
'Disorientated'
Mrs Clarke was employed as a maths teacher from September 2014, having previously worked there as a learning assistant, the panel heard.
The teacher admitted that on her way to work at the school in January 2023, she was involved in a crash, left the scene of the accident and drove her damaged car onto the school's site.
The 'disorientated' teacher then walked from her parked car 'with the intention of taking her normal class' and went to her classroom to teach, the panel was told.
The colleague she crashed into said they had been stopped at traffic lights at a pedestrian crossing.
As the lights turned green, a car 'hit the rear of their vehicle', the hearing was told.
'They recognised the driver as a teacher at the school at which they also worked,' the panel heard.
'Slurring her words'
The colleague did not think Mrs Clarke would be able to drive her car away because it was 'very crumpled and ... the air bags had gone off', the hearing was told.
The maths teacher 'rummaged in her handbag for her phone but instead pulled out her bank card', the panel heard.
Mrs Clarke 'appeared very confused, she kept repeating herself and wasn't finishing her sentences. I would describe her as incoherent', the colleague told the panel, adding: 'As she was talking she was slurring her words.'
After the incident was reported, the school's head teacher went to look for Mrs Clarke and found her in the maths department, the panel was told.
The head teacher decided to call the police because they could smell alcohol and said she 'seemed very muddled', the panel heard.
The teacher was breathalysed, and found to be at about three times over the legal limit, the hearing was told.
She was arrested and taken to the police station where she failed to provide a breath sample.
Mrs Clarke was later convicted following a guilty plea and disqualified from driving for 12 months, the hearing was told.
When school staff went to look at her car they saw 'both airbags, deflated, the windscreen was cracked and there was damage to the front', the panel heard.
She resigned from the school the same month, telling the panel she was 'immensely sorry' for her actions.
David Oatley, on behalf of the Secretary of State, agreed with the panel's recommendation that it had been 'a one-off incident', and drew short of banning Mrs Clarke from teaching.