A teacher who allegedly chugged booze and hurled curse words at students during a lesson that she interrupted to have them dance the Macarena has been fired.
Alice Ashton from the UK was swigging from a water bottle full of orange liquid which smelled of alcohol and blaring music from her laptop during the health class, one of her 16-year-old students told a hearing on Tuesday, reported the Telegraph.
She also called students βlittle sβtsβ and βput her middle finger two to three inchesβ from another teenβs face during the βout of controlβ class at Ysgol Bro Caereinion school in Welshpool, Wales, in January last year.
The usually βreserved and quietβ teacherβs classes on alcohol and drug awareness were normally βboring,β a student told the hearing of the Education Workforce Council Wales panel.
But before the class, she was spotted swigging from a water bottle that had an βalcoholic smell,β the unidentified student told the hearing.
βShe 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,β the student said, as reported by LBC.
β[She] asked the class to make the Macarena. She played music and we were not doing work,β the student said.
Ashtonβs sloppy behavior came just four months after she had been convicted of drunk-driving, the fitness-to-practice hearing heard.
The βwaterβ bottle Ashton had in her class was almost empty by the end of the class, the students said.
Ashton βkept jumping up from her deskβ and was becoming βirritatedβ as the class went on, at point getting right in an unruly teenβs face, the student said.
Ashton denied that she had sung or sworn at students in an internal school review, but multiple witnesses came forward to describe the chaotic scene.
βShe got some students dancing to the laptop and speakers and it spiraled out of control,β a second teenager said.
CCTV footage from the class that day corroborated the studentsβ stories, the panel said.
βIt is totally untenable to suggest the music is being played as background music,β presenting officer Lewis Harris said, as reported by LBC.
βThe evidence is very clear that Miss Ashton did not remain at the front of the class. She invited pupils to dance.β
She might be quite rude. A little hard to tell: