Sure, I'm just wondering why it happened in this instance. Apparently telling a teacher you won't need them anymore is a kind of impossible situation for them, so I was wondering if offering them an 'out' would help.

Otherwise you get some weird conflict where they need to tell a teacher, which I think is automatically a superior?, that they're no longer required. So they're in a position where they need to 'criticize' a superior, and it looks like they choose to do so obliquely, and then just freeze when said superior asks them to tell it straight.