The teachers’ union has called on San Anton principal Joe Gauci to say what action is going to be taken against the author of an “insulting” e-mail about the school staff.
The Malta Union of Teachers yesterday published the e-mail sent from Dr Gauci’s account on its website and asked the principal to “substantiate” his statement that he “accidentally forwarded it” by publishing the original message.
In the published e-mail, sent to four MUT officials, the text starts with the words, “I’ve answered in bold under each point”. Under each point listed by the union, there is a sentence written in upper case.
The union has suspended all connections with the school, including discussions over its collective agreement, after it received an e-mail from Dr Gauci’s account with comments such as “What kind of trash are these people! This is coming from (the name of a teacher). WTF? They knew we were getting whiteboards,” and “No pedagogical benefits? – They know it all… so much for their B.Eds”.
However, Dr Gauci is insisting that he had received feedback about the union’s proposals from a colleague, which he copied and pasted and accidentally sent back to the union.
The union said: “A person who has this attitude towards his or her colleagues and the trade union has no place in a school – especially in a prestigious one such as San Anton.”
Dr Gauci said the issue was being dealt with “internally” and could not understand why the union insisted on making it public. “We will, as we have always done, answer them in due course. We are also very carefully considering all that the union said publicly and reserving our position at law.”
Proof that the e-mail was not written by Dr Gauci was shown to a union official, he added.
However, Dr Gauci’s version received the backing of the school board which, in an e-mail sent to parents, said the “informal internal e-mail” had been “inadvertently” forwarded to the union.
“This e-mail contained feedback on a number of issues raised by the union in the context of these negotiations. Among much factual information, certain comments were evidently written as an initial angry reaction to a small number of the proposals being made. They were also written in a colloquial manner and not in a manner that one would use when communicating formally. Dr Gauci was starting to work on extracting the factual comments from this e-mail, and coupling them with his own observations, when the regrettable incident happened.”
It was “immediately obvious” to anyone that this was not written in the “spirit or style of how Dr Gauci has always communicated with the union”, or “in the spirit of the positive phone conversation Dr Gauci had with the union” one day earlier.
When he realised what happened, Dr Gauci called the union repeatedly and, when he did not get through, sent them another e-mail saying the first had been sent “inadvertently” – that it was one he had received and that it did not reflect his beliefs.
“Joe also apologised if any offence, which was certainly unintended, was taken,” the letter read.
“Despite all this, and in a manner we fail to understand, the union, rather than calling Joe back and resolving the matter maturely, actually went public with the issue clearly trying to put the school in a bad light.
“To our knowledge, the union did not even contact its two teacher union delegates about the matter.”
The union “misconstrued the e-mail, incorrectly attributed comments directly to Joe and quoted certain key parts of the e-mail interpreting them inaccurately”, the letter to parents continued.
“The board feels aggrieved that the contents of what, in any case, was a private e-mail between the school and the union and which was, I repeat, very evidently mistakenly sent, were rendered public by its recipients.”
The e-mail, sent by board chairman Simon Flynn, said the board, Dr Gauci and the school administration had “profound respect” for San Anton teachers.