A video of a Portage la Prairie teacher throwing a volleyball at a student's head during French class has drawn mixed reactions. Many people CTV spoke to say the teacher was shown in the wrong light, while others say they're happy the game has stopped.

“I don't know what kind of technique it would be unless they're playing dodge ball,” said one parent.

“I imagine if that was my child, I would have hoped they had come to me to tell me about it, so I would at least understand what was going on,” said parent Amanda Francisco

The cellphone video shows teacher Rob Gamache throwing a ball at a student’s head during a French grammar exercise.

“The ball is not thrown at you very hard, not even hard at all, and you get the choice to say yes or no and most students say yes because they like it and think it’s fun,” said student Deidre Miller.

Not everyone agrees. This video was posted on Instagram and the game was brought to the attention of the school division last week.

“It’s not appropriate practice, as far as we're concerned, and it’s been stopped,” said Hazen Barrett, superintendent of the Portage la Prairie School Division.

Some students say the incident has been taken out of context .“I think it’s entirely blown out of proportion, Students love Mr. Gamache,” saidBenjamin Didur.

But one psychologist says the actions can be misinterpreted.“The teacher deserves coodos for attempting to find a creative, fun way to engage the students, but perhaps could find a better way that could be less easily misinterpreted as unfriendly, aggressive act,” said Toby Rutner.

Untimately, the issue is about a safe school environment. “The key is providing a positive role model, and in doing that, we need to think what are the children learning from these actions and if there is a perception that there has been some harm then it needs to be addressed,” said Mary Hall of Safe Schools Manitoba.

A friend of Gamache said he stands by a man he describes as his mentor. “Rob is the only person, when I played on the volleyball team, that stopped the bullying from happening,” Jared Arnott.

CTV attempted to contact the teacher. We were told he did not want to do an interview.

- With a report by Ina Sidhu