Teaching assistant on compassionate leave went on break to Rome
SUSPENDED AFTER SNAPS OF TRIP POSTED ON FACEBOOK
A TEACHING assistant who spent a weekend in Rome when she was supposed to be on compassionate leave has been suspended.
Ella Griffith was caught out when her colleagues saw photos her boyfriend had posted on Facebook of the two of them enjoying themselves in the Italian capital.
A Fitness to Practise committee of Education Workforce Wales heard that on September 17, 2020, Miss Griffith, 25, who was a teaching assistant at Ysgol Cybi primary school in Holyhead, asked for two and a half days’ compassionate leave, but did not give any reasons for it.
Deputy head Rhian Grieve said her request was granted because it was known that she had “a serious personal matter at home”.
On September 21, however, colleagues saw Facebook photos of her enjoying cocktails and relaxing in a hot tub and visiting the Trevi Fountain, Colosseum and Vatican City.
When Miss Griffith returned to the school on September 23, she initially claimed that she had been in Italy only over the two days of the weekend.
She said the tickets were booked by her boyfriend, but when asked to produce the airline tickets, did not do so.
She then stayed away from the Anglesey primary school for two days and, contrary to the school policy, did not contact the school to explain her absence.
Miss Griffith, who no longer works at the school, did not participate in the hearing, at which she faced six charges, and was not represented.
In her absence the committee found that her conduct was dishonest and lacked integrity but found that one of the charges – that she had applied for compassionate leave in the knowledge that she was going on holiday – was not proved.
Chairwoman Sue Davies said: “Her conduct fell far short of the standard expected of a registered person and was unacceptable professional conduct.”
“Her absence so soon after the school had reopened after the Covid lockdown had impacted on the vulnerable children with special needs in her class as well as on her colleagues.”
Miss Griffith was suspended from teaching for 12 months. She cannot work in a maintained, or a non-maintained school during the suspension.
Striking Miss Griffith off the register for a year, the committee chair said Miss Griffith’s conduct “did involve dishonesty” and although she had apologised and expressed regret, she had “failed to recognise her personal responsibility as a role model and acted in a way that disregarded colleagues and learners.”