Evashni Pather

Introduction

Evashni Pather taught sociology at The Bridge Academy in Hackney from September 2018 until May 2019, mostly teaching sixth-form students. In November 2022 a Teaching Regulation Agency professional conduct panel found that her repeated absences were underpinned by fabricated medical documentation: a fitness-to-work note purporting to come from a GP surgery, signed by a doctor who had not signed it and whose surgery never issued it, and a discharge summary carrying a handwritten note purportedly from another doctor who had not written it. The panel found the conduct dishonest over a sustained period. Decision maker John Knowles banned her from teaching indefinitely with a five-year review period.

Background Information

The school’s sickness absence policy required staff to call the absence line before 7am, to notify line managers, and to supply fit notes for absences beyond a week. Pather’s absences were recurrent, and the documentation she supplied to cover them — the forged sick note dated 25 September 2018 and the NHS discharge summary with its fake handwritten note — led the school to believe she was suffering a serious condition and to treat her sympathetically and supportively for a considerable period. When staff pressed her for the underlying evidence, she insisted the fit note was genuine and exactly what her doctor issued, then resigned in May 2019 rather than produce the hospital-appointment records she would have possessed if the claimed condition were real. The panel found her resignation, on those facts, was itself telling.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Forged sick notes found proved and dishonest; one allegation not proved and put entirely from mind; banned with a five-year review.

The panel found Pather failed to maintain attendance standards, failed to respond to reasonable requests for evidence, and supplied fabricated, inaccurate or misleading documents — specifying that the GP surgery had not issued the sick note, that the signature was not the doctor’s, and that neither document contained any genuine evidence of the claimed diagnosis. It found the dishonesty allegation proved over the sustained period, observing that her fabricated claims undermined the trust the school placed in her and disrupted the learning of the pupils she was employed to teach. One allegation was found not proved, and Knowles expressly put that matter entirely from his mind in setting the sanction. Pather was neither present nor represented at the hearing, which proceeded in her absence in the public interest.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The panel found a strong public interest in the safeguarding and wellbeing of pupils given the impact of her dishonesty on learning continuity — her sixth-form sociology students lost stable teaching while the school believed it was accommodating a genuinely ill colleague — and in maintaining public confidence and upholding standards. It noted the school’s sympathetic response as an aggravating dimension of the deception: the falsehood exploited the employer’s care. Knowles adopted the five-year review recommendation, finding a prohibition order necessary and proportionate. The published decision is the case’s main public record; the matter attracted no press coverage. The case sits in the same fabricated-document tier as rebuked exam-malpractice and fake-reference cases in the TRA stream.

Current Status

Pather is prohibited from teaching indefinitely and cannot teach in any school, sixth form college, relevant youth accommodation or children’s home in England. She may apply for the order to be set aside, but not until 25 November 2027 — five years from the date of Knowles’s order, 21 November 2022, at the earliest — and such an application is not an automatic right; a panel would have to be satisfied the order should be lifted. The panel’s determination is dated 16 November 2022. She retains a right of appeal to the King’s Bench Division of the High Court within 28 days of notice of the order.

Impact on Their Career/Life

The case shows how sickness-absence management documentation becomes the evidentiary heart of a dishonesty case: the fabricated fit note and discharge summary were each disproven on three independent points — issuance, signature, and substance. Pather’s decision to resign rather than produce genuine hospital records was treated as confirmation, not mitigation, and the five-year review period is at the longer end for non-child-contact dishonesty, reflecting the sustained nature of the deception. For schools the case underlines verifying medical evidence at source; for Pather the ban forecloses classroom teaching in England until at least late 2027, and permanently unless a future panel grants set-aside.

Sources

• Dept for Education, “Teacher misconduct panel outcome: Ms Evashni Pather” — source