Watch out for Jamie Joel. She’s got a real temper and a mouth like a sewer when she gets going. Jamie imagined the new deputy reading her file, with a photo the size of a Wanted poster and words like disruptive, unco-operative, inappropriate underneath it
all that teacher stuff that never said what really happened.

I reminded Jamie that student behaviour management was my job, and that part of the issue was now her identity crisis in the corridor. From the way she looked at me, I had the distinct feeling that it wasn’t possible to be a deputy principal and a human being at the same time.

Against the background of a busy high school, student and teacher are thrown together in ways that test them both.

With sympathy, humour and a sharp eye for the truth, Mike Dumbleton writes about the complicated push-and-pull between teenagers, parents and schools.