A girl who is being bullied takes revenge on her tormentor by destroying her glasses. Do you punish her according to the rules? A primary school teacher tells how she dealt with the situation.

A couple of weeks ago, my Year 6 pupils were out on the school field fortheir PE lesson. When they returned to get changed one of the girls -let's call her Donna - found that her glasses had been removed from herbag and broken. The remains were next to her bag and I had no idea whowas responsible.

First of all, I phoned her mum who was angry and demanded that theculprit be caught and severely punished. I agreed to mount aninvestigation and began by getting the caretaker to track down CCTVfootage from the time of the lesson. We watched the tape for around 15minutes - then a breakthrough. A girl who should have been on the fieldwas shown entering the changing rooms.

The tape showed that this girl - let's call her Nita - was the onlyperson to enter the changing rooms throughout the lesson. When Iconfronted her, she initially denied she had left the school field atall. Eventually, she burst into tears and admitted she had done it. Shesaid she was being picked on by Donna and had broken her glasses "to getback at her". But she begged me not to tell Donna that she was theculprit.

Her defence fitted in with what I already suspected, based on behaviourI had witnessed in the playground. And her previous teacher told meDonna had once started a rumour that Nita had nits and had refused tosit next to her "because she smells". Therefore, I felt it would becounter-productive to reveal Nita had broken the glasses as it couldexpose her to further abuse.

Nevertheless, Nita still had to be punished. According to school rules,a pupil who seriously damages someone's property should face an internalexclusion (doing their work in the corridor) and be made to write aletter of apology to their victim.

In this case I felt that this would make it too obvious that Nita wasthe guilty party. Similarly, writing a letter to Donna would be playinginto her hands. With the head's permission I reduced the punishment tokeeping Nita in for two lunchtimes. I explained the situation to Donna'smum and said the culprit was being punished, but not identified. Shewasn't too happy, but you can't please everyone.

- Have you ever faced a tough professional choice? Call Stovin Hayter on020 8267 4767 or email stovin.hayter@haynet.com.