A UK teaching assistant was caught taking a secret trip to Italy because her boyfriend put pics of them on Facebook. Possibly even more nightmare-inducing than your mum seeing a tagged pic of you at a party instead of “at a sleepover”.
Teaching assistant Ella apparently asked for time off work for a “serious personal matter at home” as first reported by The Sun.
She ended up being given compassionate leave. But then her boyfriend posted pics of the couple on holiday in Rome.
In fairness, I have many serious personal matters that I think could be fixed by an Italian getaway. Prob best to get actual leave for it instead though.
Ella was exposed when other staff members saw pics of her drinking cocktails, vibing in a hot tub and eating pasta. Pretty snitchy vibes there from the other teachers TBH. Let her eat her penne alla arrabiata!
That being said if I had to cover someone else’s class of Year 7s knowing they were living la vida loca in Italy, I’d probably be pissed too.
The whole incident ended up going to a misconduct panel. Then the headteacher of the school confirmed the whole messy situation.
“She spoke with me on September 17, 2020 and asked to leave early the following day and return on September 23,” headteacher Rhian Grieve said, as per News.com.au.
Grieve also said Ella’s situation seemed “critical”, which is why she was given leave.
In another twisty turn, Ella also lied about how long she’d been away.
She said she’d just been in Italy over the weekend instead of the whole leave period. Messy! I empathise with the urge to lie in this situation but this is spiking my adrenal glands.
Later, she admitted she’d actually been away in Italy the whole time. If this were me, I would be simply fuming at my boyfriend.
The committee cleared her of “knowingly” using her time off to travel to Italy. But the committee chair Sue Davies pointed out that booking international travel at the time was quite a process. I mean, we are talking about 2020.
“Travel from the UK during the first year of the COVID pandemic meant international travel from the UK was not straightforward and required for example booking COVID tests to enable flying,” Davies said.
“It strikes the committee as inherently unlikely [she] would have been completely unaware of the proposed travel plans with her partner.
“[She] knew or must have known during the course of her leave in Italy was the school was being misled to the principle reason for her absence.”
Ella’s now been given a 12 month suspension order from working in schools and found guilty of unacceptable professional conduct.
This is like the boss mode of pulling a sickie and being tagged at the beach on FB. If you’re gonna pull a cheeky holiday, deffo blacklist your boyfriend from hopping on the socials during it.
