A drama teacher who claims her health suffered after she was given a class containing "nightmare" pupils is seeking £800,000 damages in a stress at work case.

Rosemary Fletcher maintains she tried to tackle the teenagers' bad behaviour, including throwing chairs around and flatulence, by using school disciplinary procedures.

Mrs Fletcher alleges the disruptive class at Islay High School, at Bowmore on Islay, made her ill and in June 2001 she had to seek medical help and subsequently went off work.

She said in her action that she continually raised concerns about indiscipline and the ineffectiveness of sanctions on the pupils. Mrs Fletcher, 42, is now suing her employer - Argyll and Bute Council - at the Court of Session in Edinburgh alleging that she suffered as a result of its fault and negligence.

She said she was diagnosed with a psychiatric illness - an adjustment disorder with anxiety and depressive reaction. Mrs Fletcher said she suffered low mood, fatigue, poor concentration and tearfulness as a result.

The case was originally raised at Campeltown Sheriff Court but was sent to Scotland's supreme civil court because of its complexity and importance.

Mrs Fletcher, of Port Askaig, Islay, said she returned to work in September 2000 after being off on maternity leave with her third child. One of her classes, S3, was made up of 19 boys and one girl aged between 14 and 15.

They did not want to study drama but were forced to study the subject, music or art.

Mrs Fletcher told the court: "Up until 2000, when I came back off maternity leave, usually the children were very enthusiastic. They had chosen drama because they enjoyed the subject."

But she said the first time she taught the S3 class the behaviour was "unacceptable". "Initially there were three of four of the boys who really did not want to be there and they made that known from when I first started teaching them," she told her counsel, James Campbell QC.

"I felt they were setting out to sabotage the work going on in the class. They would come in and argue with me, they would answer back, they would disrupt other pupils' work by humming, passing wind, throwing chairs over.

"They were affecting the confidence of the children in the class. They would shout out across the class to each other. They would laugh, they would jeer. They brought party poppers into class," she added.

Mrs Fletcher said: "The other children in the class were starting to get very fed up with what was going on. They would say to me 'Miss, can't you stop this. Can't you do anything?'"

"The three or four boys started to realise that the sanctions did not really mean anything to them."

The council disputes her claim and maintains it was not reasonably foreseeable she was at risk of suffering a recognised psychiatric injury. It said she did not report any stress-related problems to her employer.

The hearing before Lord Pentland continues.