A teacher has been struck off for driving a car full of children four times over the alcohol limit on the first day of her new child-minding business.
Mum of two Christina Manning, 36, was banned from teaching for at least five years by watchdogs who said it was ‘more luck than good judgement that nobody was hurt’ by her shocking behaviour.
A district judge in Chester had been told the teacher had been binge drinking at a barbecue on June 23 2019 – the night before launching her own child-minding business.
Christine Manning drunkenly drove three children the day she launched a child-minding business
The next day, she downed a large glass of wine in the afternoon before setting off in her Renault Megane, with children aged 13, 10 and one to pick up her son from nursery.
On the way, Manning had pulled up in Parklands Community Primary School’s car park in Ellesmere Port around 4.30pm.
Chester Magistrates Court heard staff smelled alcohol on her breath and asked her if she had been drinking. Manning replied: ‘No, but I had wine last night.’
Cops arrived as Manning was getting back into the car. They told her to get out and saw she was shaking.
Manning blew 130 micrograms, nearly four times the legal limit of 35, and was arrested to appear in court the following morning.
The court heard the night before the offences she had been at a barbecue and had consumed ‘a significant amount of alcohol’.
She did not teach the following day because her main focus was on her first day of childminding, it was said.
But she consumed one large glass of wine before driving as ‘a coping mechanism’ to calm her anxiety, the court heard.
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The misconduct panel heard she had dodged custody when her 16-week jail sentence was suspended on appeal.
She had been working with disabled children and was nervous how her son would react to a child with severe autism she was to look after.
Manning, from the Cheshire village of Little Sutton, admitted drink driving and being drunk in charge of a child under seven on the morning of her court appearance, when sentence was adjourned.
She was jailed for 16 weeks the following month and was being led away to the cells when she was bailed pending an appeal. Two days later, Chester Crown Court reduced the jail term to a suspended sentence.
Manning has been struck off for at least five years after she was tested and found to be four times the legal limit
At the time, Manning was working as a supply teacher at Princes Primary School, Liverpool, and she was reported to the Teaching Regulation Agency.
Craig Underwood, who chaired the virtual TRA hearing on January 19 this year, said in his judgement: ‘The panel noted that the behaviour involved in committing the offences could have had an impact on the safety or security of pupils and/or members of the public.
‘The panel were clear that it was more luck than good judgement that nobody was hurt and that this could have resulted in serious injury to a pupil or member of the public.
‘The panel noted that Ms Manning’s behaviour ultimately led to a sentence of imprisonment, (albeit that it was suspended), which was indicative of the seriousness of the offences committed.’
The teacher was also banned from driving for five years, which was to be reduced by a quarter by her completing a drink drive rehabilitation course.
Banning her from the profession for at least five years today, Sarah Buxcey, for the Education Secretary, said: ‘The panel finds that the conduct of Ms Manning fell significantly short of the standards expected of the profession.
‘The findings of misconduct are particularly serious as they include a finding that involved driving with alcohol above the limit and being drunk in charge of a child under the age of seven.’
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