T here can be no excuse for the conduct of the teacher at Pembroke Hall High School who was caught on video rebuking a student in the manner of a fired up tribal healer almost in the ‘spirit’.

What was shown all over social media amounted to an exercise of poor judgement at the wrong time. There is word that the situation was provoked and that may be so. There are some little tyrants in our schools who cannot be tamed or controlled, and so, some amount of verbal force is the usual resort.

I empathise with that teacher. Those in command appear bent on dishing out to her, a kind of uncooked meal which she may find hard to digest. And it would not be as expensive as sushi. Instead of judging her off the video, all information must be collected and, possibly used as evidence. We may all find, in the end, that though vulgar, there may have been some amount of justification for her outbursts.

She has been sent on leave, pending an investigation. My prediction is that she will return with confidence to do the orthodox job that she was trained to perform — if not at Pembroke Hall, then elsewhere.