Stephanie Szymanska

Introduction

Stephanie Szymanska taught at Colchester Sixth Form College until her arrest in December 2021 for supplying cocaine — an offence committed outside school, away from pupils, on 18 June 2021. On 8 February 2022 she was convicted at Ipswich Crown Court and sentenced to 15 months’ imprisonment suspended for 24 months. In April 2024 a Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) professional conduct panel found the conviction amounted to a relevant offence and recommended prohibition, and decision maker Sarah Buxcey banned her from teaching indefinitely, with a three-year review period.

Background Information

Szymanska worked at Colchester Sixth Form College until December 2021, when she was arrested in relation to the June 2021 offence and immediately resigned from her teaching role. The college referred her to the TRA on 14 January 2022. She pleaded guilty to supplying a controlled drug of Class A — cocaine — and on 16 May 2022 was sentenced at Ipswich Crown Court to the suspended custodial term, 80 hours of unpaid work, a 25-day rehabilitation activity requirement and a victim surcharge. The case was decided at a private virtual panel meeting on 23 April 2024 without a hearing, at her own request, on a signed statement of agreed facts.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Convicted of supplying cocaine; banned for it although nothing happened at school. The panel accepted the conviction as conclusive proof and found the facts proven on her guilty plea.

The panel accepted the certificate of conviction from Ipswich Crown Court as conclusive proof and noted that the offence took place outside the school setting and school hours and involved neither pupils nor other members of staff. It nonetheless found that Szymanska’s actions were relevant to her fitness to teach: it observed that her behaviour “could undoubtedly affect public confidence in the teaching profession”, and that supplying illegal substances of any classification is an offence the regulator’s advice treats as more likely to be a relevant offence. The panel weighed her written statement — that she had immediately resigned after arrest, completed all her unpaid work, engaged fully with the probation service, and considered herself to have “left the profession” — but concluded that the seriousness of the offending behaviour remained relevant to her ongoing suitability to teach.

On sanction, the panel found no evidence that she had demonstrated exceptionally high standards or contributed significantly to the education sector, but took account of her account of the conviction’s consequences: she described the event as having sent shockwaves through her family, as out of character, as her first involvement with the police, and as something she had worked tirelessly to recover from, paying her mortgage and bills while studying part-time for a master’s degree in sociology and criminology. The panel decided that recommending publication alone “would unacceptably compromise the public interest considerations present in this case” and that prohibition was both proportionate and appropriate. On review, it noted that drug supply weighs in favour of a longer review period but balanced against that the absence of any school-setting misconduct and her steps to rebuild, recommending three years. Buxcey adopted the recommendation, concluding that a two-year review period would not suffice given “the seriousness of the findings involving class A drugs and the impact on the profession”.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The published decision is the case’s entire public record; no press coverage attaches to it. The consequences moved in sequence: the June 2021 offence, the December 2021 arrest and immediate resignation, the guilty plea and suspended sentence in May 2022, and the TRA ban in April 2024 — nearly three years after the sentence. The panel’s finding that the offence “had not involved pupils or other members of staff” sat alongside its conclusion that the profession’s public standing required the ban regardless; the regulator’s jurisdiction over a teacher’s out-of-school life is the case’s core precedent.

Current Status

Szymanska is prohibited from teaching indefinitely and cannot teach in any school, sixth form college, relevant youth accommodation or children’s home in England. The order takes effect from service. She may apply for the prohibition order to be set aside, but not until 2027, three years from the date of the order at the earliest — and the decision states this is not an automatic right to have the order removed. She retains a right of appeal to the King’s Bench Division of the High Court within 28 days of notice. The determination is dated 23 April 2024, with Buxcey’s order dated 26 April 2024.

Impact on Their Career/Life

The case closes a teaching career that ended at the moment of arrest three years before the ban, converting a criminal sentence the courts made suspendable into a permanent professional consequence the regulator made reviewable only after three more years. For teachers, its significance is the panel’s express reasoning that even a pupil-free, out-of-hours Class A supply conviction “could undoubtedly affect public confidence” — the off-duty conduct rule applied to its fullest extent. Her own mitigation record — completed unpaid work, full probation engagement, retraining — shaped only the review period, not the outcome.

Sources

• Dept for Education, “Teacher misconduct panel outcome: Ms Stephanie Szymanska” — source