We need proper laws on the selection of school-teachers, their retention and grounds for dismissal
This YouTube video is called Cock and Clit. In itself it is tame and not explicit – I suspect largely because Erin Stewart Tanti, who produced it, could not get his volunteer actors to take their clothes off and be graphic.
The only thing in his full control was the name, and that in itself says rather a lot about a man of 19 who reduces men and women to their reproductive organs and their relationship to interaction between those organs.
The video was made and uploaded before he became a schoolteacher. But it was freely available for the school to inspect at the time he was engaged as a teacher, and it has remained freely available for his charges to inspect ever since.
Even if the school had dismissed this video as the erotic fantasies of a frustrated 19-year-old with no experience of life, rather than an indicator of the unhealthy manner in which he views women (clits) and the interaction between the sexes, they should have insisted that he takes it down.
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The education department has plenty to answer for.
He was not employed by the Education Department. He was teaching in a private school. I am not in favour of such videos, but I do believe that the majority of teachers are responsible and mature.
All teachers are employed by the Education Department, no matter where they teach, be it a State, Church or private school.
No H. Prynne. State school teachers only are employed by the education department. Church school and independant teachers are employed by the particular school. Its good to know that in state schools one cannot teach a subject which he is not qualified in.
Aunt Hetty, in this case it’s the school which has a LOT to answer for. According to this blog http://insiteronline.com/author/erinstuartpalmier/ Erin Stewart Tanti was still a 4th Year Theatre Studies student in December 2012.
That means that his course probably ended June 2013. If he wanted to become a teacher he had to follow a one year PGCE course in the academic year 2013-2014.
He did NOT follow the PGCE course because otherwise he would still be at university.
The Education Act (law) is quite clear that only people who follow adequate training in pedagogy (PGCE / Bed(Hons) degrees) can obtain the teaching warrant, so the question to ask is: why was the school allowed to employ an unwarranted teacher?
Why isn’t the list of warranted teachers freely available – this would allow us parents to check whether the people entrusted with our children during the school time have at least received adequate training.
That applies mostly to government schools. There are no such laws restricting private schools to employ teachers having either the B.Ed or PGCE qualification only – in fact, students having a BSc in a subject may apply for, and be chosen by, a private school to teach.
Let’s not miss the wood for the trees. This isn’t about teaching degrees or PGCEs.
I see a general dumbing down of everything. Rules of normal behaviour, professional distance, rank, relationships on the working place and formality have all gone to the dogs. The explosion of this “laid-back”, informal, buddy-type behaviour is happening in all professions. And it’s a short step from annoying to inappropriate.
The staff at my office don’t call me Mr Baxxter, or even Baxxter, but “Baxx”. Because the effort of pronouncing the two syllables in my surname would tire them out. The cleaning lady came in last week and got talking about relationships with some of the other office worker. Then she turned to me, sat on my desk and asked: “Ghandek gharusa, hi?”
“Hi”? On my desk?
Last Christmas season, the office staff had a sort of obligatory pre-party out in the street, spilling out of the office, taking group photos and selfies and making a god almighty row complete with American-style whooping. In front of the student interns, whose bosses of sorts we are, if you please.
Ditto for the farewell party for one of our staff, an over-the-top thing complete with cake, candles, tears, present from the office whip-up, and alcohol aplenty. All during office hours, among the cubicles. The place was a mess. And all the while I was dealing with a client over the phone.
Does it make it a happier workplace? Does it fop. I’d rather they improved office hours, or bought new swivel chairs. Does it make it a more efficient workplace? Does it fopper. It does bugger all for team cohesion, because in the end we all go back to our individual cubicles, and it’s backstabbing back to normal.
The man’s work is as trashy as his behaviour. Hardly signs of genius or creativity here.
Maltese society does not only lack creativity. It lacks logic and any sense of a moral order.
Well done, Daphne, the more I read your pages, the more I learn about your creative insight.
We don’t need laws. How can you implement a law?
It’s just so cool to be bad on this island, full stop.
Malta is black and white and that’s it.
We need standards and rules to be obeyed. How can you achieve this when less than half the population are educated.
It’s unbelievable that people need a law to tell them that teachers shouldn’t take lone pupils for drives in their car to Dingli Cliffs at night.
“It’s just so cool to be bad on this island, full stop.”
Let’s hope that this is an eye-opener to Joseph Muscat, that when you play with a value system to cheat it over and over and by simple open and proud example coerce others to follow, there are disastrous results down the line.
Everything is linked.
Sobriety is called for.
Unfortunately, by modern enlightened, liberal, standards taking the video down would have amounted to censorship, a relic of the Spanish Inquisition.
The Spanish Inquisition?
Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!
It all boils down to a rotten Maltese selection process for all jobs where only qualifications and degrees are taken into consideration with no scrutiny of values, attitudes, behaviour, and references.
It all boils down to the Maltese obsession with certificates, diplomas and degrees. The greater one’s collection, the wiser one’s seen to be. And who gives a damn about one’s personal development?
It all boils down to idiots interviewing idiots, and liking them.
Certificates mean nothing when ethics and values are thrown out of the window.
The worst is that it starts at university. Whereas until the recent past the first compulsory module for all students was ethics in your subject of study, today this has vanished entirely from most courses.
So if our students have no background in ethics and codes of conduct they aren’t even taught its importance at university either.
Furthermore many in the workplace are dismissing codes of conduct so you can imagine what a mess we are all in.
@ H.P. Baxxter .. Couldn’t have said it better.
so while every other human being just watches pornographic material, Mr.Erin is dismissed as ‘sick’ and a ‘pedophile’ because he directed this material? Come on, you’re making a young girl’s tragic death seem like a topic for Coffee Mornings, by altering details on what happened to make it seem more interesting.
The only ‘sick’ person I see here are those who alter the story to fulfil their own disgusting need to gossip constantly.
I sincerely hope, NotAnIdiot, that you are in the minority. Sadly, for children in general, it appears that you are not.
You’re missing the point: it’s how you use the material and what you do with it that matters. If you exceed ‘normal’ limits, then this could be a sign that there a serious problems with the person distributing such pictures on Facebook and elsewhere.
I don’t think anyone here called Mr Erin a paedophile for directing this crap – it is the age of some of the people who he chose to associate with that laid him wide open to that accusation.
No, I disagree.
The school should not have asked him to take it down for the reason Evarist Saliba gives.
The school should have taken the opportunity to sack him .
It could have helped him get a job running a gentleman’s club.
The persons who wrote and published a story on the same lines, but worse, were awarded Ġieħ ir-Repubblika medals.
And they were presented – mainly by Labour media – as heroes of progressive thought and defenders of freedom of speech.
Erin Stewart Tanti’s photos and videos are one of the consequences.
I hope ALL the parents of the school concerned put pressure on the administration not to let this sick person near any minor.
Besides all teachers, learning support assistants and anyone working in any educative facility should be continuously screened.
They are – through the courts and subject to approval by the Education Division…..
I had met the guy through friends last summer. He’s a very short person with a disproportionately large head and a long tongue. I think this explains everything.
I hope that the authorities take action.
And to start understanding that a teacher is a role model, positive or bad, knowing or not knowing.
Stewart Tanti’s defenders are starting to remind me of those people on the internet who defend people like Woody Allen or Roman Polanski.
Not that I would ever equate Erin Tanti with either of these men – just the mindset of their friends and fans seems eerily similar: “He’s an amazing talent and person so he couldn’t possibly do something like this.” “He’s a great teacher and made Lisa so happy so he obviously cannot be that bad.”
So many out there are naive or deeply in denial – they don’t want to face up to the fact that they were good friends with a person like this.
This is the second time the school has employed a pervert, but in the other case the pupils had reported their teacher and got him arrested for his behaviour.
@anon1234
No that was another school bearing the same name.
But there goes to prove the need for schools to continuosly monitor and screen teachers.
A few teachers not fit for purpose easily come to mind.
No it WAS that school, I know because I was there when it happened.
@herbie
It’s the same school. anon1234 is right.
Will someone name the school. I have two children attending private schools and I believe that it is my right, as a parent to know where all this is happening. Thanks.
Unfortunately, when such things happen, the reputation of the rest of the teachers suffers as well.
It is the reputation of the school administration that suffers and rightly so.
Depiction is not endorsement. As somebody who posted Li Tkisser Sewwi on her blog and dared the police to prosecute, I imagine you agree.
[Daphne – No, I don’t. I uploaded that script as a challenge to the police to arrest me on grounds of publication, and to show how weak their argument was. It was most certainly not endorsement. In fact I said that the story is badly written and the sentiments it expresses are ghastly, though it was a correct portrayal of how such men think.
Stewart Tanti, on the other hand, uploaded this horrible image because he likes it, approves of it, and describes it as beautiful. It is his own personal taste. Vella Gera’s horrid story is most certainly not mine.]
You speak as if you know him, his like, his dislikes and his inner workings. Daphne, didn’t know you were God.
[Daphne – I’m not God. I’m a normal grown woman with a certain amount of experience. Accustomed as we are nowadays to seeing women my age behaving like idiots, and the men with them, we tend to forget that women of 49 are supposed to be able to assess a situation like this immediately, and see this man and his victim for what they are, and the situation exactly for what it is. And you don’t have to be 49, either. You would normally be able to do it by 25.]
I dont think any age grants you the ability to deal final statements such as “he uploaded this horrible image because he likes it”. Perhaps “he liked it at the time”, you like playing with words you know what I mean.
all I’ll say is Erin at 19 and Erin at 23 were two different people, having known him at both times.
Unfortunately he did not know that at 23 there would have come a point where he should have cleaned up his cyber litter before it would all be used against him.
that’s all ill say
It’s so tragic and sad what has happened to this poor girl.
But right now it’s all speculation about what exactly happened. Am I saying that it was right for Erin to take his pupil out on a drive and to Dingli cliffs?
Of course not.
Unfortunately these things happen all the time with pupils and teachers. I remember at my school many years ago (and a very well known all girls school) a pupil was dating a bus driver and everyone knew about it. Was he a teacher… no, but the school knew and didn’t do anything.
Let’s just remember that gossip and speculation is just harming this girl’s reputation, her family are in mourning and need everyone’s support. Erin will be punished and I hope he gets the help that he needs.
The school has plenty to answer for. This is not the first incident or scandal by a teacher from that school.
There are authorities who could and should take a stand on it…..
I think that many are missing a point that this guy is a drama teacher and that self expression should be reached through art?
[Daphne – I have to say it, because I can’t resist any longer. Grow up. Do, for your own sake, grow up. Too many people in Malta confuse a falsely manufactured ‘creative persona’ with real creativity. There is nothing remotely creative about this man. He is one of those people who invent a character for themselves and then proceed to play it out for the rest of their lives, as though they are starring in a film or play spooling through their mind, scripted by themselves. You are talking about somebody who is completely unhinged, and not because of creativity, either. I bet he thought that when he jumped off that cliff, he’d resurrect to play a part in another life-film, just like an actor playing the part of somebody throwing himself off a cliff. He needs to be locked up in a mental hospital.]
You say that as if you actually knew him. You didn’t. I’m sure you’ll try and twist this around on me by attacking my credibility through my nickname or grammar but the fact remains. You didn’t know the man. How dare you call him uncreative when you never actually met the guy.
You are the Arriva of humanity.
[Daphne – I’m 49 years old. I have lived, worked, raised a family and dealt with multitudes of people over the course of it. Much of my work is in the creative fields (not this). When I say that Erin Stewart Tanti is a man unhinged by his own pretensions, and that he has created a persona as a substitute for any real creativity, I am making an accurate assessment. I don’t need to ‘get to know him’. I don’t need to know what his hobbies are or how he holds his knife and fork to profile him. There is sufficient information available to do that. As for your metaphor: five points for trying and one for creativity. It fails.]
wow daphne – you’re reaching an all new low here. The kid has imagination, not schizophrenia. Sure he made some bad choices, his expressions may not have suited the taste of most, but he’s 23 – not that far out of being a boy – some people don’t grow up till they die, they’re hardly insane. Why must you strip him of all humanity and paint him as some sort of vile monster? Just because he stung you a bit with his stand up? It’s a joke get over it. I don’t condone anything he’s done but bad choices hardly warrant your dealing of death and judgement. Get off your high horse please, and grow some humanity.
[Daphne – You are talking of a teacher who drove a 15-year-old pupil to Dingli Cliffs and jumped off with her. That is neither imagination nor a bad choice. That is criminally insane.]
Honestly I don’t know how you can just condemn someone who you don’t know as unhinged. I can pass no judgement but you don’t know the situation, whether she consented to be there and what actually happened.
I also see that you left out the second part of my comment, don’t you agree that you should stop exploiting this kid?
[Daphne – Any teacher who drives a pupil to Dingli Cliffs and jumps off with her is definitely unhinged. There is no room for speculation here.]
That’s funny, because all this is in the end is your speculation.
[Daphne – It’s not. It emerges from what the police have said about prosecution.]
She was 15 for crying out loud. Whether she ‘consented’ or not is completely irrelevant, given she was legally a minor. And from the family’s statements it is clear that her guardians never consented to her jumping off a cliff with her ‘teacher’.
If you ask me, it’s not just teacher selection that needs looking in to, but the education system as a whole.
On arriving in Malta at 15, even at that age I was stunned at the familiarity that existed between pupils and teachers at secondary level. Only a courteous ‘good morning/afternoon Mr./Ms….’ would have been accepted or tolerated by teachers at the secondary I attended in England at the time – even though I doubt things have remained the same from what I read today.
School started at 09:00 and ended at 16:30. We had projects, but no homework (maybe because we spent more time at school or because some of us lived so far from school that we didn’t arrive home before !7:30, and in my case it was bed at 21:00, weekends too).
Three hours of sport a week – no exceptions; rugby, gymnastics and cross country if it was frosty or snowing. You were in line outside the gym on time and hot showers afterwards, again, no exceptions.
One and a half hour LUNCH break.
My first year’s experience at a church school here in Malta was replete with warnings/threats by one unhinged ‘Brother’ to jump from a second floor window if we weren’t quiet, and screaming fits by a string of equally neurotic teachers.
Classrooms you were stuck in for a whole year that wouldn’t have passed for a janitor’s broom cupboard, and sport, well, that was just an anagram for a selection of what the director kept well stocked in his drinks cabinet – I kid you not.
All in all, I can see why this island is inhabited by a dull-witted, laissez-faire, shalla bib-z***i population. (you’ll have to edit my Maltese).
Truly pathetic.
I never went to school in Malta but my secondary education was at Cheltenham Technical High School. We also were at school from 0915 until 1630.
All the teachers had to be called Sir or Miss and we sat at desks not tables.
We were not permitted to walk around and had to raise a hand to attract the teacher’s attention before we could speak.
The standard of education even at junior level was very high and there were very few pupils who could not read or write.
Calling a teacher by his or her first name was not permitted and we had a high level of discipline both communal and self.
That seems to have been the trailer to entice people to watch his play. See this http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2010-10-24/news/c-and-c-by-erin-stewart-tanti-282096/
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20101201/arts-entertainment/a-drama-with-a-lack-of-ideas.338775
I myself am a teacher in secondary public school. Last week my colleague was called into the asst. head’s office. Apparently my colleague had sent the asst. head a friend request on Facebook. Upon seeing that her profile pic was of her in bikini top and sarong the asst. head felt to call her out on it.
She told her that whilst she had no right to oblige her to change it, she felt like such a photo shouldn’t be online given that above all she is an educator.
My point is that there are MANY people who care and look into their teacher’s Facebook accounts. We are STRICTLY PROHIBITED to add students as friends and we know that if we add our colleagues that carries a responsibility.
If the school didn’t know about Mr. Tanti’s past, preferences or whatever then it wasn’t doing its job properly.