Lesson 1 with Erin Stewart Tanti: how to snort cocaine off your laptop, and why it is cool to do so with a teacher
Erin Stewart Tanti had been teaching teenage pupils for a month already when he uploaded this photograph on his Facebook page, which is completely open and visible to all his pupils, to his fellow teachers and to the school administrators.
He hasn’t captioned it, but the same photograph is on the Facebook page of his comedy act, The Wembley Store Boys, and there he has captioned it ‘How The Wembley Store Boys do Saturdays’.
To me it looks like a set-scene: three slightly dorky losers trying to look cool in the same way you would at, say, 15. One is has dressed up in an black open shirt and hat and is countin’ da money; Stewart Tanti is pouring tea using the tea-set from what is clearly the resident parental authority’s lista tat-tieg 30 years earlier while lighting a roll-up; and the other one is playing at snorting cocaine off his laptop.
I say ‘playing at’ because if he really were doing it, nobody would have taken a picture and they wouldn’t have uploaded it on Facebook.
But the message to Erin Stewart Tanti’s pupils is there regardless of whether that really is cocaine on his friend’s laptop.
This is madly irresponsible and he should have been sacked immediately.
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Hi Daphne,
I’m actually his ex-business partner. We were harmlessly doing a bit.
I mean, you can see the sugar pot right next to my laptop.
I understand if you have your reservations with Erin but I’m really just trying to get on by with my own life after what happened.
[Daphne – I know you’re acting it out. I said as much. It’s not as though I’ve lived the world’s most sheltered life. You’d have to be nuts to upload a photograph of yourself actually snorting real cocaine. My point here is that whether you’re acting or not is irrelevant. It is a lousy example to Stewart Tanti’s pupils and it is a hallmark of how criminally irresponsible he is that he posed for it when he was already a teacher and uploaded it on full view to his pupils.
Cocaine is a REAL problem with children the age he teaches. It’s not something he should be flippantly portraying as cool or amusing.
You are free to do as you please (depending on what you do for a living and what your employer thinks about these things). But he, as a teacher, is not. This is the sort of behaviour you expect from 16-year-olds not men your age. That’s your business, but then Stewart Tanti shouldn’t be teaching.]
James, Daphne is right.
There is a reason why some films are not suitable for teenagers and children.
The same can be said for certain video games.
It’s not real. In the case of video games it’s not even real people. But the truth is that teenagers, whether you remember this or not, have limited judgement and are easily influenced.
Yes, I suppose some people younger than me might find that sort of statement old-fashioned, but to be perfectly honest I’ve seen far too many lives ruined because a bunch of “adults” thought it was no big deal to behave like naughty teenagers, even though they had clearly passed that phase of their lives, in front of teenagers.
Sometime ago on Facebook there was a video clip doing the rounds – a short clip about how children doing what they see being done (I think it was called ‘children see, children do’).
My point here is that being a teacher (not a qualified one, true, but then that is the school’s responsibility) this man should have never even thought about putting such rubbish up for his pupils to see.
If he takes pleasure in indulging in such low ‘art’ fine -everyone has different tastes – but not at the expense of young, developing, vulnerable minds.
Putting on Facebook an act simulating cocaine sniffing by a drama teacher in charge of young girls is not “harmlessly doing a bit”.
Excusing it is not the correct way of ” … trying to get on by with my own life after what happened.”
Ex-business partner? If you were in business with this weirdo, you must have been making losses and huge ones too.
I wish you luck with ‘getting on with your life’ after what happened – you really must thank God or whatever you believe in.
Realising that you’ve been mixing with the wrong people actually happens when disaster strikes – luckily you were not there at the wrong time otherwise you would have been embroiled in the unthinkable.
James, God knows how hard I am trying to contain my anger at what you said.
As Daphne points out, Erin Tanti is a teacher and should set an example to the children he is supposed to educate. His sickness has resulted in death and heartache.
By uploading a photo of himself with a friend pretending to snort cocaine, Tanti goes further – he is endorsing its use whether that bowl has sugar or cocaine in it.
To adults it is obvious that the bowl is full of sugar. To children it is not. They have no way of distinguishing cocaine from sugar on a photo. And, yet, you want to maintain this facade that it was cocaine. What? Do you think it’s cool to take drugs? It isn’t. I hope you get arrested and taken to court for that admission.
Tanti UNDERMINES the efforts of parents like myself who spend a life time teaching their children to steer clear of illegal drugs because of their addictive and destructive potential. If Tanti had any ounce of sense or any kind of empathy towards parents in general and children he would have not uploaded the photo.
Like all other parents, I spend a lot of time worrying that my children might try cocaine and other drugs and get hooked. My cousin and several friends of mine have died because of drugs. I am sure that others here have other similar stories to share.
It is scum like Erin Tanti who undermine all we do to protect our children from abuse, from hard drugs and years of pain and suffering. And you come here publicly admitting to drug use reinforcing the “hipness” of this man among those who are stupid enough to defend him over this tragedy.
You have absolutely no clue regarding the dangers of addiction – you have no idea about the pain and suffering addiction brings to the junkie and to those who love him and her. Some people are highly susceptible to addictions and you inadvertently presented them with an example that might start them on a road to self destruction.
You are irresponsible idiots! And I am being extremely polite about it.
Erin Tanti is chief among you because he has destroyed the life of a young girl and sent her father on a terrible life-long journey of guilt, regret and deep sadness. He has a responsibility as a teacher to set a good example. And yet what do we find? There he is, flaunting and endorsing the consumption of drugs, urinating in public fountains, and reducing personal relationships to genitalia. Oh, and a morbid interest in bondage and domination.
You say, “I’m really just trying to get on by with my own life after what happened.”
Well, you can. Ms Zahra cannot because she’s dead. Neither can her father because he’s lost his beloved daughter.
I think he simply wasn’t aware of the reality of drug addiction since he has none of his own.
Yes, it was an immature assumption but I think his last sentence simply meant that he was just as shocked as anyone else. Especially since they worked together.
Don’t be so hard on the boy.
James, be lucky that you can take a lesson out of what these people are telling you.
[Daphne – I agree with you, but wish to point out that men in their 20s are not boys, but men. Not so long ago they would have been married with children and a home to provide for, and rather a lot of responsibility, at that age – which is probably part of the problem now, this extended childhood and nothing to work towards. ]
Glenn,
The more I read and think about the story the more I find myself picturing the young girl’s heartbroken father. From what I hear through people who know him, Mr Zahra adored his daughter (and her late mother).
And even if that were not the case, Erin Tanti has sent a girl to her death, from a wonderful future, from the opportunity to have a career, maybe a family, a grown-up life.
I can’t help but find myself transported into a possible future where my child is lying at the foot of a cliff because of some abusive/perverted relationship or in some dark alley with a syringe because of some such scumbag who doesn’t stop to think about the effects and the influences his actions have on others.
Perhaps I should be more open to forgiving James Ryder’s comments and simply dismissing them as an expression of remorse. There again, I find myself hesitating.
Glenn, at 23 a human male is a man and not a boy, and should act accordingly.
When I was 18 I was fighting communist terrorists in Malaya and by the time I was 23 I had seen action in three different countries. The trouble with people today is lack of discipline.
You don’t joke about drugs – it’s not funny.
Back in my day, if you were a nerd you would do everything possible to conceal it. Now you flaunt it.
I just don’t know.
Times change and now: ‘Nerdz Rule!’
I mean nerds REALLY rule, just check our cabinet and our highest institutions. They are run by Nerd Central and stuffed with nerd herds.
Be a Labour nerd and next thing you know, you’ll be posing on the OPM’s stairs.
My comment is unrelated to the Dingli tragedy.
And from the decor I reckon that they’re in mummy’s house.
Baxxter, if you stop and take note of the forty, fifty people who make the news in Malta (the ones you see when you switch the TV on or open the boring Sunday newspapers) you will realise that it’s a list of nerds and people who never really grew up.
An important milestone in growing up for a Maltese person is the realisation that this tiny country is a little joke. Those who do not get this and strive to make it ‘big’ in Malta are living not only in denial but in a huge illusion that once it evaporates could leave you gasping for air.
Of course Ira Losco would sing in the star-studded Gensna. Because when you reach your apex in Malta it’s time to move on. Otherwise you’re stuck singing Tema 79 or whatever it is.
Young, bright people are better off abroad, mingling with foreigners, ideally marrying a foreign man / woman and treating this island as it should be treated, a holiday retreat in summer. Life is way too short to spend it in such a small place with very few life-enriching opportunities.
Would that be a woman “Stef”, as in “Stephanie”? Because if it is, I want to marry you right now.
I had seen the Danish film Festin. It is quite a disturbing film. Acting or not it is very easy to get the characters mixed up with real life problems especially if you are not all there, making suicide aa plausible option to life’s solutions.
I think the schools in question have a lot to answer to. I read he worked for Masquerade and St Michael’s School. Were they exercising enough due diligence in employing such people?
This due diligence process should have been ongoing. You cannot have a school teacher posting such pictures. I trust the Education Department to intervene accordingly please.
I don’t know whether we have as yet been told all that is to know about the man in question. Maybe there are other things which will eventually come to light.
However that may be, there has been enough said and shown for lots of questions to be asked about the manner, and the circumstances, in which he was engaged to teach art and drama to students between the ages of 12 and 16 – or others probably.
I would ask, for instance, whether any references have been requested by the school – from whom, of what kind and to what extent.
As far as I know, moreover, a first degree in any subject does not, by itself, entitle a person to teach that subject. A Master’s – or a PGCE – is also required nowadays. Was this the case here? It does not seem to be so.
As many commentators have since pointed the out, the school which engaged him (many of us know which it is, as we have children or grandchildren attending there) has the responsibility of explaining its position – and its apparent lack of adequate scrutiny prior to affording him employment.
Why it has since remained silent is baffling. Is there anything to be kept hidden from those interested?
How about scrutinising personalities rather than their certificates? Lots of screwballs are very clever. They don’t necessarily try to become teachers.
Would you put yourself in the hands of a highly qualified surgeon with personality problems?
Enough said.
Oh my god. There is actually a head of school who posted on his wall that she will remember this guy with her 450 students. Are we all going crazy. A 15 year old died here. Where are the authorities.
Mourning the wrong person, and leading their flock in doing so.
I keep on asking myself, how is it possible that the parents didn’t ever notice that there was something wrong with their son?
I don’t think it takes much to note that his actions, thoughts were not all that normal.
What about his teachers?
The sad truth is that a teenager lost her life and that this psycho is being portrayed on Facebook as the victim, when in reality he is not.
I hope there will be justice and so he will not do anymore damage to the society as he already did. He can continue with his fantasies in prison or a psychiatric ward.
PL deputy leader Anglu Farrugia was made to resign after a comment about a magistrate. It seems that last Thursday, the other PL deputy leader Toni Abela was fined for contempt of court and chucked out of court by Magistrate Anthony Vella because he was disturbing the court.
I dont know what to say about all this, really, I’m perplexed. Discussing the matter with my women friends, we talked about the age gap, coming to the conclusion that, we’ve all been there, one way or another.
Problem is, in hindsight, the cool dudes that we hung out with back then, I now see as perverts. What interest did they have in a child who looked like a woman but was a child nonetheless?
Am I being a prude? Maybe it is because I am a mother, of a girl. I’m terrified. Should the school be held accountable for negligence? Can they really dictate how one behaves outside of school?
Schools can’t control behaviour out of school but they can keep an eye on things and exclude people whose behaviour is less than exemplary and whose mindset makes them a threat to the safety of their pupils.
At this rate, the parents at the school where he used to teach should be up in arms!
Pollon pollon kombina guai
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DllHlxtsHSw
Yes, he does look like Eros, he probably thinks he’s more an Ataru.
Arah kemm hu kool it-teecer bid-drug nights like the cool 14 year olds.
Jien ma narahx cool – jien narah ‘nieqes’.
Well said, Daphne.
You’re not helping this man, you’re trying to judge and sacrifice him as an bad example.
Try to get this in line with your so-called virtue of christian love.
Christianity has nothing to do with it.
Christianity extols the virtue of justice.
What a bunch of sad losers these lot are! Way to spend a Saturday night, so much to show how ‘busy’ they really were preparing for their stand-up shows, as they explained in this interview. Shouldn’t they have been actually doing their shows on a Saturday night? No wonder they ‘fizzled’ out.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20130603/thezone-careers/a-man-walks-into-a-bar.472312
Even if I don’t have any children of my own yet, I’d hate to think such a weirdo is the teacher of my child (be it drama, music or whatever academic subject that may be), and what worries me even more is the fact that these pupils (who by what they have been writing here are clearly under his influence) he was teaching until some days ago, can eventually be the teachers of my children and/or parents of my children’s friends. Even just the thought sickens me.
Also disturbing are the comments on some of his Facebook profile photos, freely available to the public, even those who are not his FB friends, written by his ‘friends and/or pupils’.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=636298009766376&set=a.102411936488322.3185.100001585478061&type=1&theater
“Maria Khmelkova: You are sooo attractive, my teacher!!!”
Is that proper teacher-pupil relationship? I wonder what’s next! And why are his pupils calling him by his name instead of Mr. Tanti/Palmier or whatever his real surname is.
There comes to mind a particular evening in a disco in Paceville. I had left the force and was trying out a job offered in the management of the disco. On that particular evening, teenagers, from a different school from the one in the limelight today, organised a “party”. They brought banners six to eight feet tall. Each had a comic character on it, like the Pink Panther.
e a look. They all remarked sort of “how sweet our teenage children having mickey and the lot hanging there.” The parents were not aware that those cartoon characters were nothing short nor anything less than the “common names in jargon” of the more dangerous of drugs they referred to. So much to illustrate the responsibilities adults have in taking these things seriously especially when they are intermingling with adolescents at any place, any event, function or do.
Getting by with one’s own life should not be so self-centred as to ignore what goes on around us to our neighbours, especially vulnerable ones. “Doing a bit” may look harmless to one person but harmful to others.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2587945/Headteacher-36-affair-15-year-old-pupil-taking-trips-seaside-hotels.html
So now we’re judging and portraying people by the photos they post on their Facebook page.
Better go sort mine out asap!
[Daphne – Well, it took you a long time to work that out, didn’t it. Of course you’re going to be judged by the photos you upload on Facebook.That’s exactly why people upload them in the first place: to be judged by them. But the only sort of judgement they want is ‘sexy pic hon’, ‘bella’ and ‘what a nice life you have’.]
D’uh! Suffice to say that employers have been referencing Facebook et al, when reviewing short-listed candidates, for years.
See Daphne, this is a typical example of how the Maltese operate.
Carla didn’t know anything about the dangers Facebook photos may bring, till she came in here to realise that the photos she posts determine who the person behind the Facebook profile is.
As if this isn’t obvious.
In other countries, they ban the like of Erin for life.
See: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2587945/Headteacher-36-affair-15-year-old-pupil-taking-trips-seaside-hotels.html
And what exactly is it she’s trying to say?
http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/comment/blogs/37196/standing_in_judgment_from_behind_your_keyboard_
She couldn’t even get herself to say he was Lisa Maria’s teacher.
Which incidentally happens to be the detail which caused everyone with children of their own to express their disgust at this horror.
Tell it to Lisa Maria’s family, Josanne Cassar, that perhaps her father should have known better than trust a school with his daughter.
Of course judgement comes into it.
Some things have to be called by their name.
[Daphne – Yes, the point they’re all missing in their eagerness to seem open-minded about teachers running around with their pupils is this. This was a 15-year-old girl, kept out all night by one of her teachers and driven to Dingli Cliffs in his car at 4am when the police and her parents were looking for her.
Nothing more needs to be added. Even if no tragedy had happened, this is shocking in itself.]
This guy is definitely not suited to be a teacher. This is what his, I quote, “theatre production company” had to say about their own production, called Cock & Clit: “…all the water in the Nile cannot wash this play of its obscenity”.
You’re either going to spend your life dedicated to educating and helping to form decent morals in schoolchildren, or else you’re going to pursue an anti-establishment agenda, pushing the boundaries accepted in society. You can’t do both concurrently.
I’m all for freedom of speech and pushing boundaries, because there is a place for that in society, but you cannot on the one hand teach and form schoolchildren who look up to you as their role model, and then go out at night and do the opposite, unless you’re suffering from D.I.D. or something similar that is.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20101201/arts-entertainment/a-drama-with-a-lack-of-ideas.338775
Malta Today’s reporting of this case is an ongoing travesty. First the paper stated in one of its headlines that Erin Stewart Tanti was helping Lisa Zahra through a difficult time, prompting her family to issue a statement immediately to dismiss this outright.
Now I read this on Malta Today:
“Lisa Maria Zahra, daughter of the entrepreneur Tony Zahra, lost her life in a tragic accident on Wednesday, 19 March at the foot of Dingli cliffs. Her family says she had been missing since Tuesday, and that she was accompanied to Dingli by Tanti in his car.”
It was NOT a tragic “accident” (which I suspect is a literal translation from “incident” but hardly means the same thing) and nor was she “accompanied to Dingli by Tanti in his car”. She was driven to Dingli by Erin and the police ruled out accidental death from the get go.
Shoddy and misleading writing.
They’ve been at it since Lisa Maria Zahra went missing,
‘The police ruled out foul play’ they reported as he was lifted off the cliffs.
I guess the ‘theatre community needs all the support it can give’.
Daphne has a good point. Just because you consider yourself to be mature and know right from wrong doesn’t mean everybody around you is the same like you.
Teenagers are vulnerable and so one must be more careful when it comes to uploading such photos on places like Facebook, especially when they are not kept private but deliberately left open to public view by all, including children.
Erin Stewart Tanti teaches those children and shouldn’t be leading by bad example.
Predictably, Erin Stuart Palmier’s Facebook profile has since been taken down – the page is no longer available. I sincerely hope that the police and the Zahra family have taken screenshots of anything they might need in the future.
http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/news/national/37241/minister_says_teachers_council_obliged_to_investigate_case#.UzCo-xRwbIU
http://www.teatrusalesjan.com/News/Featured+Artist+Erin+Stuart+Palmier/1128
http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/comment/blogs/37196/standing_in_judgment_from_behind_your_keyboard_
The lady forgot to mention the most important issue i.e. that she is talking about a teacher and his pupil, outside normal school hours, in the early hours of the morning on Dingli cliffs alone, and the pupil was then found dead.
Josanne Cassar, who spends most of her time on Facebook, also seems to have missed seeing all the inappropriate material posted publicly on this teacher’s Facebook page, the content of which jarred with the position of confidence he holds (held) as a member of the teaching profession.
She also fails to comment on the execrable manner in which vetting of prospective teachers is carried out by the authorities of this school and perhaps others too.
Josanne Cassar’s article is disgusting. She completely disregards who the real victim is in this situation and by default goes on to defend the perpetrator.
The ‘mob rule’ argument is tiring – for one, I dislike people using the phrase ‘lynch mob’ to describe the criticism Stewart Tanti is rightfully receiving, as it conjures up unpleasant images of black men in 1930s America being hung on trees left to die.
If anything, that phrase ought to be applied to the hordes of Maltese racists who treat African immigrants worse than dogs or stray animals. (We’ve actually seen more sympathy shown to dead cats than to actual human beings in need of real help…)
Stewart Tanti was in the process of building a public image for himself. He was crafting a career as an artist and writer. You don’t get to that stage by hiding away like some hermit. He was well known on the Maltese theatre scene and was quite popular amongst his peers. Being somewhat of a personality, this incident was bound to get a lot of attention anyway.
Didn’t he once tell a pupil of his that ‘no publicity is bad publicity’? Well, now he’s getting plenty of it. And I hope he’s bloody well enjoying every second of it.
I so agree with you! Thought her article extremely irresponsible.
Well said, Feminist.
Josanne Cassar is perhaps trying to get publicity herself by cashing in on the situation and the “anti-Daphne” trend, without so much as mentioning her.
What Ms Cassar clearly, and very irresponsibly, omits to state is that yes, Erin Tanti aka Erin Stuart Palmier was the girl’s teacher. The man had no business being alone with his pupil outside school hours, more so at Dingli Cliffs, and at night, at that.
Shame on Ms Cassar for trivialising the situation, which did not involve two contemporaries, but an adult teacher and his underage pupil.
One does not have to be a parent to know how wrong that is.
Josanne Cassar is always like that, defending the indefensible. That’s because her world is not our world. She lives a dream, pontificating and not practising what she preaches.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110119/local/break-the-ban-university-student-says.345945
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20090901/local/beating-censors-at-their-own-game.271709
Quite the darling.
They should also abolish the infamous teacher’s bash! End of year and every other excuse like Christmas holidays a party specifically for teachers is organised so that they can freely go get drunk like crazy in public and most of the time, together with their pupils.
I feel sorry for those teachers who are REALLY doing their job and who REALLY feel responsibility towards these kids.
I agree.
Only last year, I was driving down a side-road at the Ferries in broad daylight, when newly graduated teachers were celebrating their graduation, many with wine bottles in hand and clearly drunk.
Some obstructed my way, and I waiting patiently for a very short while, only to have a few of them utter obscenities in my direction when I tried to drive through.
My main worry at the time was not so much their behaviour per se, but the fact that – given their behaviour – they would clearly not make responsible teachers simply because they graduated as such.
I meant “waited” …
The issue is that “teachers bash” is held a couple of times a year and the teachers there are not celebrating their graduation but have been teaching for a number of years. It is disgusting.
Hi,
Without going into whether or not I agree with you on what you are saying about Mr. Tanti I feel compelled to remind you he is a son and a brother to innocent people. The comments you penning down left and right about him will surely arrive to them causing great pain. Also, it may tarnish their own reputation all the while leaving them stigmatized over something they had no part into. I know this won’t stop you from blogging, but I hope it will make you think.
[Daphne – Everybody is a son and brother or a daughter and sister or an aunt or uncle. Including me, for that matter, and I see nobody rushing to my defence to shut people up about me on the grounds that I have sons, parents, sisters, and a husband, and for my first 10 – 15 years as a columnist, also two grandmothers who worried endlessly about everything that was said. Concern about the family is no justification for silence unless it is an entirely private tragedy.
Perpetrators of crimes, like Stewart Tanti, and those around them, often cannot come to terms with the magnitude of their actions and instead of blaming their predicament on the actions of their own family member, they prefer to blame external factors and people as the cause of their distress.]
If he is a brother, a son, a cousin or a nephew, Lisa Maria Zahra was a daughter, an aunt, a sister.
Regarding your bla and bla, the difference you keep forgetting is that he’s alive but the girl is dead – just to remind you
Daphne, am I wrong to think that the people supporting him here are mostly: ’15-year old girls’.
Is this a strange coincidence or fact?
The photos he’s been posting and his behaviour on social networks, have been tarnishing his family’s reputation long before a comments section about the case, was set up on this website.
I can’t believe these people – I REALLY can’t.
What an earth is Lynn M talking about? A party for teachers and their pupils to get drunk?
It’s called a teacher’s bash. It happens a couple of times a year and they are publicized on Facebook normally. Nothing hidden. And irresponsible teachers go get drunk like crazy because it’s the last day before Christmas holidays or before summer holidays. Teachers who take their profession seriously are utterly disgusted by this and how they are allowed to continue.
Naqtghu mohhu fil-flus daqs kemm iridha tar-Rich and Cool Guy.
How pathetic do you have to be to not only scramble through pictures online of a 23 year old and have the nerve to call him irresponsible! His business was comedy , humour is opinionated between people, clearly this is not your idea of funny but your objective in this to relate it to him and this current situation is un just , unthoughtful, and tardy…
Your point on “open to see” is irrelevant, the internet is open to see , age restriction or not it’s available to anyone, the content a person is available to see is left to there imagination. Comment on the teachers in the local schools for cursing in class or picking out a child to openly torment in class,! Don’t point out a picture in a SUBSTITUTE teachers facebook page and ridicule him for having a quirky sense of humour.
their*
Mr John,
forgive the likes of me for failing to see the ”humour” and ”comedy” in the suspicious death of a minor after being driven to Dingli cliffs at dead of night by her adult teacher , who , incidentally is still alive.
We’re merely trying to encourage him to follow his true calling.
Marc Dorcel started out as a draughtsman in a sewing-machine factory.
Oh so now he’s a ‘substitute’ teacher! So we should excuse him because he’s just a substitute ‘miskin’.
Teacher, substitute teacher, actor, comedian, student or not, one thing’s for sure, he’s an adult. And if he’s as intelligent as he claims to be, even if the girl had begged him to take her for a drive, he should NEVER have.
In fact I would have expected he knew better.
Bottom line is that teachers are dealing daily with kids who may have or are going through tough times – teachers are in many instances role models and what they say and do – because they are teachers and usually have the full trust of the parents is not questioned.
Kids between the ages of 13 to 20 are rebellious, volatile and will often look for things which may go against their parents wishes. It’s normal – some go to lengths others barely scratch the surface, but the fact remains that a teacher has a code of ethics which needs to be followed and I am sure that this case will open a can of worms.
[Daphne – People over the age of 18 are not kids but adults. They are not answerable to their parents’ wishes but are legally autonomous and accountable for their own choices and actions. Also, if they are still rebelling against their parents at 20 there’s a problem as it is not normal.]
I beg to differ on one point you raised above, people over the age of 18 are legally autonomus, yes, but emotionally or mentally, from my own experiences – age does not come into the equation and vunerabilty between the ages of 13 to 20 are real 9even beyond), as this case has clearly shown and I am sure we will, if ever the truth comes out, realize that there is so much more to this story and many others happening at this very moment as we all talk here. I plea here that we keep an eye open at all times, to speak our mind if we notice any of our kids, nephews, friends kids etc acting or hanging out with people who we think may be the wrong people at that time of their life. Never be afraid to speak your mind simply because you may be called old fashined or a geek or nerd or whatever. Often when a family is going through a crisis, all the forces which can totally torment you will surface. Lets all be there for those we love and care for, keep our eyes open for thngs we feel are not right, and above all never assume that because we were lucky in our lives that our mistakes have not YET caught up with us,
they never will.
I recently took a football coaching course for young kids -and one of the most important things discussed was that at all times I was to be seen as a positive person, clean and never to use bad language and at all times, if ever one of the kids needed the loo – never to go to the loos alone with the child and to never at any point even if the parents asked – are we to accept to take the kids home or anywhere unaccompanied.
Now if this is the basic rule attached to a 2-day course for football – what more will be instructed to a teacher, even if this is a substitute teacher.
Today, if I want to employ anyone with me, representing me and my company, this first thing I do on receipt of an application and CV is to take a look at the persons Facebook profile, so there’s absolutely no reason in today’s digital world for such mistakes to occur.
Dear Daphne,
I thank you for making people see the real reality.
In that place they should investigate teachers from the kinder school to the senior school. I have heard so many stories and this was one of the worst!
There was the case of the acid thrown at the assistant head’s face – why was acid thrown at him, and by whom? Then they made him a PSD teacher, and he shocked my son talking about the satisfaction a man can get if he masturbates alone and does not need a companion!
There was also that paedophile Vella Gera who asked a boy to strip on web-cam!
There are teachers who go in late for their class because they have a relationship with another teacher!
I’m so glad my son is out of there. I used to pay all that money and for what? I still had to send him to private lessons because they never finished the syllabus. And to top it all up, the bullying in that school is something unbelievable. If we had to go around parents and ask, they all have a story to tell!
I do blame the school for what has happened. It should clean up its act and find some proper teachers before other tragedies happen. Thank you, Daphne.
[Daphne – Monica, I know little or nothing about the school in question, and my comments are about the teacher-pupil situation in general. My sons were not at the same school but I remember that there were two computer teachers at their school around 12 years ago who would interact in the classroom with their girl-pupils exactly as they would with women their own age who they were trying to pick up in a bar. It was noticeably wrong even to the children themselves, and especially to the boys, who were cast in the role of observers. One pupil drew a cartoon of the worst of these teachers, portrayed as a paedophile, and stuck it to the school noticeboard. The pupil was suspended and the teacher stayed on.]
I think there is an issue in a lot of schools in Malta. I went to two different schools, the second of which was the one in question. I also went to Masquerade.
It was in my first school that one teacher would openly flirt with her male pupils, a pupil was in a relationship with the PE teacher as soon as she finished 5th form, another teacher was rumoured to have kissed two male pupils.
There are loads of these stories, that at the time shocked us but being young we did nothing about it.
If I could go back in time I would report every single one of them. There seems to be a real blur in Malta when it comes to age differences. I’m not sure why, but it needs to be addressed.
Arrested development is a national disease in Malta. Young teachers feel that they’re in the same league as their pupils, but it doesn’t stop there.
It is possible to reach physical and legal adulthood without growing up. What am I saying? It is possible to reach advanced middle-age without ever growing up. The evidence is all around us.