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students and some of the teachers on the Principal and the School Management was excessive. Whilst, considering the degree of polarisation, it appeared understandable that the Education Department and the Roman Catholic Bishop supported Miss Kwan in the discharge of her duties as the Principal of the School, it seemed to us regrettable, in hindsight, that they had not tried to play a conciliatory role to mediate the conflict despite the difficulty to initiate dialogue at
that stage.
t
42.
By May 1978, it was obvious that the situation was quickly getting out of control, particularly when, regrettably, a group of teachers together with their students defiantly carried their action beyond the school premises. By the
12th May 1978, developments were such that normal school life could not be expected to continue. The assessments made by officers of the Education Department when they visited the School on the 11th and 12th May 1978 were correct in that school life was severely disrupted and the strain suffered by those teachers who stood by their duties at the School
had indeed become unbearable.
ל
43.
Much has been said about the good-will and intention of those teachers and students who returned from their . demonstration outside Caritas to the School late in the morning of 12th May 1978. However, we have sufficient information to believe that their willingness to resume normal classes was conditional upon certain demands being met. It has also been impressed upon us that the presence of some students in a particular school activity on the
13th May
1978 was evidence of willingness on the part of all demonstrating teachers and students to return to normality. We find this assumption difficult to accept and, in any case,
/the
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