Defamation by school for writing novel can I publish changing names

I am a student studying in 12th std. I had recently written a short novel about my school farewell and I had used my teachers' real name (only the first name and no surname) and nowhere in the book I had mentioned the school's name expect on the "Acknowledgment" page. However, when I showed them the book on the next day after publishing it, they didn't like it and they had got offended that I had written about them. My father went and gave them all the remaining 100 books that I had and I had to also remove the books from all the book shopping sites right away. I went to talk to them about letting me change the names and publish the book again but they are not allowing me to do so. They said they'll​ put a "Defamation case" on me. And so I was scared so I didn't do anything about my novel. But now it's been almost 8 months since that incident so now can I publish the book again with new names because I think they​ exceeded the "Statute Of limitation"?