Swimming teacher who drank wine before lesson and fell over in pool is banned
Liam Knight was ‘unsteady on his feet, struggling to speak articulately and unable to focus or remain orientated’.
A drunk swimming teacher who kept falling over in the school pool after swigging rose wine straight from the bottle has been banned from the profession.
Liam Knight “slurred his words, had bloodshot eyes and couldn’t focus or remain orientated” while in the water with a class of young pupils, a Teaching Regulation Agency panel heard.
A bottle of rose wine which the teacher had bought during his lunch break was later found in the staff toilets, the tribunal was told.
The swimming teacher said he probably consumed the wine in the park near Drayton Junior School near Norwich, Norfolk, where he started working in September 2023.
Just a month after starting the job, he had brought the alcohol with him to the school, and was also taking medication which he had failed to tell managers about, the panel heard.
One or both of the medications was “causing him to suffer drowsiness”, the tribunal heard.
Mr Knight accepted that he had taken a dose of his medication before his swimming lesson, and had also been drinking wine.
Mr Knight “could not recall the specifics of his drinking”, but said he “probably would have consumed the wine directly from the wine bottle”, the panel was told.
By the time he started his lesson, he was “unsteady on his feet, struggling to speak articulately and unable to focus or remain orientated,” the tribunal heard.
“There was evidence that Mr Knight had run the swimming lesson in a different way on this occasion as he had failed to take a headcount or do a register and that his general mannerisms were different,” the panel said.
The swimming teacher admitted that he was “not in a fit state” to be responsible for his class or to be in the pool.
The tribunal concluded that Mr Knight, who has has since been working as an ambulance care assistant, was guilty of misconduct, and banned him from the teaching profession with a review period of two years.
“In this case, the panel has found all of the allegations proven and found that those proven facts amount to unacceptable professional conduct.
“The conduct of Mr Knight fell significantly short of the standards expected.”
