She claims the man at the centre of the Trinity Grammar haircut scandal had a temper and once stormed into her year 9 class, fuming about a mess in the locker room. She alleges he kicked her desk, which then flew up and broke her elbow. “My elbow swelled up, so my mum took me to the hospital and they said it was broken,” she said. “The next day we went to the school and complained and I didn't get any apology.” Ms Ballinger alleges she witnessed Mr Brown picking up a student by his clothes and holding him by a locker.

“If I turned the corner and he was there, I would stand there and shake,” she said. Mr Brown denies these claims and said he would never hurt a student. Many former students from Erinbank Secondary College, which closed in 2008, are revisiting their memories of Mr Brown in the wake of his controversial dismissal at Trinity Grammar for cutting a boy’s hair on school photo day. Before taking up a job at the Kew private school, Mr Brown worked at the state school for eight years in the '80s. Some ex-students recall a young, athletic teacher who played two games for Carlton in the VFL in 1983 and then devoted his life to the needy school. They speak of a hard-working educator who mowed lawns at the school on weekends, set up the Duke of Edinburgh program and table tennis tournaments, raised funds for a swimming pool and laid down bricks at the school’s own camp.

But some also claim the strict teacher had a dark side. In a long post on a closed Facebook group for school alumni, ex-students have accused Mr Brown of using intimidation and fear to discipline students. They claim he threw chairs and students across the room, hurled abuse and was a bully. One woman, who does not want to be named, said that after she refused to take part in a trust-building exercise on school camp, a furious Mr Brown took the then 14-year-old to another room, pushed her against a wall and lifted her up by her neck. She said her feet were dangling above the ground. “I was red in the face, choking, he was screaming in my face,” she said. “The irony is not lost on me, he was the person who I should have been able to trust.”

Mr Brown denied ever lifting a student up by their neck, but said he may have appeared scary to some students. “In hindsight, I owe a few of them an apology.” He said he loved working at the school, but it was a tough environment. Knives were drawn on teachers in the schoolyard, some students were gang members and many came from very troubled backgrounds. “It was a hard school and I understand there were some people who liked the discipline and some who didn’t,” he said.

“I didn’t throw anyone across the classroom but some of these kids were difficult ... I wanted the best for them.” Mr Brown, who wants to return to his job at Trinity, said he had become more mellow over the years. A former teacher at Erinbank, who did not want to be named, said she witnessed Mr Brown throwing students at walls and upending tables and chairs. More than 1000 disgruntled Trinity Grammar parents, students and alumni voted on Tuesday for the removal of headmaster Dr Michael Davies and the school council. The influential Old Trinity Grammarians Association has threatened legal action if the demands aren't met by close of business on Friday.