A SHAMED teacher downed booze from a water bottle in a “mini rave” lesson and called her pupils “little s***s”.
Alice Ashton blared loud music in the PSE lesson and shouted and danced in front of shocked students.
Alice Ashton sipped alcohol from a water bottle while teaching[/caption]
The teacher has now been struck off[/caption]
Pupils at Ysgol Bro Caereinion school in Welshpool, Powys, raised concerns after smelling alcohol coming from Ashton’s Evian bottle.
The teacher has now been struck off following a fitness to practice hearing.
A panel heard the “out of control” lesson took place in January last year – just four months after Ashton was convicted of drink-driving.
One 16-year-old pupil told the hearing that Ashton often taught “boring” PSE lessons about alcohol and drug awareness.
But on that day, the teacher was drinking booze from an Evian water bottle filled with an orange liquid.
The teen, named only as Pupil H, said the bottle was full at the start of class but almost empty by the end.
She added: “She was very, very close to us. There was a slight alcoholic smell. She was very, very lively and quite animated and speaking with her hands. In other lessons she was more reserved and quiet.
“Alice Ashton had an Evian bottle with orange juice. I noticed she was regularly taking swigs from the bottle.
“I recall Alice Ashton asked the class to make the Macarena. She played music and we were not doing work.”
The student said Ashton “kept jumping up from her desk” but became “irritated” as the lesson went on.
She repeatedly swore and called the whole class “little s***s”.
One schoolboy was walking around the classroom “annoying” his classmates when the teacher told him to leave but “not snitch”, it was said.
Pupil H said: “She began to swear at him. She put her middle finger two to three inches from his face and continued to swear at him.”
Another student told the panel that Ashton forced the class to do the Macarena and “did not care about the lesson anymore”.
The pupil added: “She got some students dancing to the laptop and speakers and it spiralled out of control.”
Ashton later told an internal school review that she did not sing to the pupils or swear.
But CCTV footage unravelled her lies, the Education Workforce Council panel said.
Presenting officer Lewis Harrison said: “It is totally untenable to suggest the music is being played as background music.
“The evidence is very clear that Miss Ashton did not remain at the front of the class. She invited pupils to dance.”
The disciplinary panel said Ashton, who has not responded to the findings, had shown no remorse or apology.
She did however email the EWC to say she now lived in England and no longer worked as a teacher.
The panel found she appeared under the influence and/or smelt of alcohol whilst at work.
Ashton was struck off the teaching register indefinitely but may reapply in two years.
Ashton had been convicted of drink-driving four months before the lesson[/caption]
Ashton failed to apologise for her actions[/caption]
