This happened mainly with students who were extremely ‘hyper’ and with whom she could neither talk them down nor establish a necessary relationship of trust. In these cases, she was often unpopular writing home to suggest psychological counseling ( in the 70’s- remember Peter Sellars ‘What’s New Pussycat? Not an untypical parental response to her suggestions!).
As I said you must put this into the context of England in the 70’s. Here the usual response, certainly from the men would have been ‘cowardice’ ‘lack of moral fiber’ or some similar WWII epithet. Indeed this was the general response of the male staff who caned to all who had ‘difficulty’ in those days. In time they started to send all those considered ‘ weak’ or ‘wimpish’ to her on some pretext.