hello if this is not a malfunction, then whoever did this, just bypassed the way the cnc works; it involves messing with default interlocks; maybe it was a safety future required by the school, but i doubt it
i have seen strange behaviour on newer tailstocks, like repeating a home comand even if the tailstock is where it should be; in other words, even if the physical position was ok, i still needed to input M55 ( or something ), only to trigger the confirmation signal; this did not happen frequently ; it was a particular case, that i handled through code
i am sorry, i really can not help you; i suppose you did all the normal things