A teacher who was convicted of supplying cocaine has dropped a complaint against a news website which covered the case after it published a clarification.

Stephanie Szymanska complained to the Independent Press Standards Organisation over a story on Essex Live headlined “Drug dealing Essex teacher banned from the classroom for at least three years”, published in May.

It reported that Ms Szymanska had been “convicted of dealing cocaine across Colchester” and had been “caught by Essex Police investigating the rise of drug-fuelled violence in the city.”

The complainant said the report was inaccurate in breach of Clause 1 of the Editor’s Code as the words “dealing cocaine across Colchester” implied she had a regular and habitual practice of selling cocaine.

This was not in fact the case, and she had been convicted of one instance of supplying the drug to an undercover officer during the course of their wider investigation.

Essex Live initially did not accept any breach, but after IPSO began an investigation, it offered to amend the story to clarify the matter.

Its opening paragraph now read: “A teacher who was convicted of dealing cocaine as part of a wider investigation into drug crime across Colchester has been banned from the profession for at least three years. Stephanie Szymanska, 36, was caught by Essex Police when they were investigating the rise of drug-fuelled violence in the city”.

This resolved the matter to the complainant’s satisfaction and as a result no ruling was made as to whether there had been a breach of the Code.

The full ruling can be read here.