Teacher pulls 'sickie' to go on mate's stag do in Portugal before ripping out passport pages to cover tracks
A teacher has admitted he skipped school to go on a friend's stag do by pulling a sickie, and then ripping pages out of his passport in an attempt to cover his tracks.
18 and 19 May, 2023 were a Thursday and Friday, and not the school holidays, so teacher Joe Wilson ought to have been at work at Listerdale Junior Academy in Rotherham.
However, his mate was having a stag do in Portugal so at five in the morning on the Thursday he told the school he was really unwell when he was actually preparing to get a flight out of the country.
“I’m not going to be in school today. I’ve been up all night being sick and have got a really bad headache," was the message a tribunal has seen of what the Year Six teacher had said to take a couple of days off work.
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The next day he messaged in: "I’m still no better so won’t be in school today. Can’t keep any food or water down. I’ll keep you updated."
Given that he was already out of the country by that point he was definitely not making it into school that day, and once the stag do was over and he did return home Wilson went back to work the following Monday (22 May).
Unfortunately for him, the tribunal heard that the teacher's ruse was rumbled when another member of staff at the school spotted a picture of Wilson at an airport with a pint in his hand.
One of the pictures had been posted by someone else at 5:23am on the Thursday morning, shortly after the teacher had told the school he'd 'been up all night being sick'.
That picture featuring Wilson was on social media with the caption: "Early start for… stag do, few beers with the Portugal gaffer."
It's really hard to explain your way out of that one but the teacher tried, initially saying the picture had been from a previous trip, before eventually admitting he'd been caught bang to rights.
He admitted to the Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) he'd 'made a huge error of judgement', and said he'd 'pulled a sickie to go on mates stag do'.
The teacher also told the TRA that his headteacher told him he'd need to show them something 'to get them off my case', he'd pulled pages out of his passport which he also admitted was 'a huge mistake'.
An investigation found his passport was missing pages nine, 10, 27 and 28.
“In falsely reporting his sickness absence and providing an altered document during an investigation, Mr Wilson was intentionally misleading the school and concealing the truth,” the panel said in its judgment.
“The panel considered that Mr Wilson’s behaviour fell below the ethical standards expected of a teacher and was contrary to the manner in which the profession professes to serve the public.”
They decided that while his conduct lacked integrity and could bring teaching into disrepute, banning him from teaching wouldn't be proportionate and publishing the findings would be enough.
Remember kids, stay in school.
Joe Harker