Teachers said claims by a Tory MP that they were drinking in staff rooms during lockdown were “ridiculous” and “bizarre”.
One said if she had had an alcoholic drink at any point in her school, she could have lost her job.
Another with elderly parents said he was too stressed to avoid passing on Covid to them to socialize.
Michael Fabricant, the Lichfield MP, spoke after Boris Johnson was fined for attending a birthday party during a Covid lockdown.
He told BBC News he knew of nurses and teachers going out for quiet drinks after their shift and after his initial claims said five other people had contacted him to back up his claims.
Teachers’ unions slammed what Mr Fabricant said with Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the NAHT Heads’ Union, who called it “completely inaccurate and deeply offensive”.
Sally Fothergill, a teacher in London, said the MP’s comments showed “how little he knows about the inner workings of a school”.
“It was really ridiculous, not only because of the fact that it didn’t happen, but because he thinks we ever have alcohol on site.
“If I had a drink in the staff room despite the pandemic, I could easily lose my job.”
She added that she cannot even have lunch with her colleagues during the lockdown.
“You went straight home at the end of the school day,” she said, adding it was “definitely not time for socializing and the last thing on anyone’s mind.”
“It was hard. My mental health has suffered from everything we’ve done. It was really quite dark at times.”
Margo Longhurst, a Leicester teacher, said the pandemic has only added to their workload as they have to adapt to being online and even delivering essential supplies to vulnerable children.
“[Mr Fabricant] saying we were all drinking because of covid I just thought we never did no matter what school I was at. We hardly have time for lunch,” she said.
“There was no time for drinks during the day, and even if we had goodbyes at my school, it was just cups of tea.”
The pandemic has been stressful for the children she taught, Ms Longhurst added, and “the younger they are, the worse it has been”.
She also had to deal with not being able to see her elderly parents as they were in the north of Scotland and “it was just this guilt that I couldn’t go there”.
“Everyone else has evolved and played by the rules and those comments belittle you.”
“What he said was completely wrong in my experience of 20 years of teaching.”
Chris Redding, from Ampthill, Bedfordshire, spent the first lockdown as he finished teaching to “come here by the back door, take off all my clothes and wash”.
He said “everyone was panicking” when he spread Covid and the last thing on anyone’s mind was to have a drink.
“I wasn’t keen on catching anything and didn’t see my parents much during that time, so it’s so much more upsetting to hear that.”
Her staff room was initially closed, and when it reopened, only six people were allowed in at a time.
“There were cloths everywhere, you had to wipe everything off after use. Occasionally you had a cup of tea, but not with a colleague.”
“The suggestion that you resigned and did this is just bizarre. We all played by the rules because it was the law, but it was also the right thing to do.”
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