A showdown between CedarBridge Academy students and Police at the Hamilton bus depot yesterday left officials and onlookers bewildered.

The clash was the second between students and Police in less than two hours and the fifth incident in less than a week involving students from the new senior school at Prospect.

Police arrested five CedarBridge students by the end of the day.

It began when Police were called to the school around 3.30 p.m. to quell "a disturbance''.

The fight was believed to be linked to an earlier altercation between two female students in the school's cafeteria.

Both girls were suspended.

But one of the girls and a relative were believed to have returned to the property after school.

Neither Police nor CedarBridge principal Ernest Payette could provide details on the after school incident.

But Police spokesman Gary Venning confirmed that officers attended a report of a disturbance at CedarBridge around 3.30 p.m.

"Several people were fighting,'' P.c. Venning said. "They detained one of those involved in the fight and several other students obstructed Police.'' Three boys (two age 16 and one 15) and a 16-year-old girl were arrested and taken to Hamilton Police Station.

There was no word on whether they would be charged.

But less than two hours later another CedarBridge student was arrested after he continued to badger a Police officer at the Hamilton bus depot.

Tempers flared after uniformed officers tried to disperse hundreds of students, from CedarBridge, Berkeley Institute, Bermuda Institute, and Whitney Middle School, who were hanging about the area shortly before 5 p.m.

Officers in four patrol cars were then ordered to clear the area and were replaced by a handful of plain-clothes officers in an unmarked car and two uniformed Policemen on motorcycles.

While attempting to control the crowd, an officer was approached by several angry young people who were not all students.

As he took out his baton to make them move back onto the sidewalk he and his partner became the target of verbal abuse.

When they managed to silence one youth, another would take over.

This continued until a CedarBridge male student, who jeered one of the officers with encouragement from a crowd of Whitney female students, was arrested.

"This has been going on from 3.30 to 5 p.m. every day since school began,'' one officer said.

"Where are their parents,'' another asked in frustration.

Onlookers who worked at nearby businesses or were trying to make their way home also shook their head in disgust and quietly disputed about who was at fault.

"This is because of CedarBridge,'' said one man. "You never had this many children in town.'' But a grandmother abruptly interrupted him.

"I don't want to hear that,'' she said. "This starts long before they reach that stage. This starts at home.'' And yesterday Mr. Payette echoed similar sentiments.

While CedarBridge needed to review the busing situation, he said the problems students exhibited in the city were not created at the school.

"PTB (Public Transport Board) have done a good job, given the circumstances,'' Mr. Payette stressed. "I have no complaints with them. But we are still looking at large numbers.

"We have to remind people when they act this way down town and at the bus terminal it is unfortunate that they are wearing CedarBridge shirts and we are ashamed by their actions.

"But the problems that they are acting out down there are not problems that the school has created.

"And it is time that the community took some ownership in the problems that these young people face and help us deal with it.'' CedarBridge was trying to make students understand that "violence is counter productive and self-destructive'', he said.

"But until it hits home to them that this is not going to be in their best interest and until parents start telling them that fighting is inappropriate and that if they are being challenged to walk away instead of hit back, we're limited in what we can do,'' Mr. Payette conceded.

Last week, two male students were suspended after a fight broke out at the school. Students were also involved in fights on Parson's Road, Pembroke, and on Church Street on the same day. The Church Street incident landed two female students in King Edward VII Memorial Hospital where they were treated for minor head injuries and released.

Mr. Payette suspended the two male students who were expected to return to school this week.

However, yesterday he stressed that the school will deal with the latest incidents "as harshly as we can within the limits that the Education Ministry and the law will allow us to do it''.

"I will go for the maximum punishments that I can get,'' Mr. Payette said.

Asked about the possibility of expelling students, he added: "Because of the age requirements, I can't necessarily do expulsion. That is something the Ministry has to approve. But first I need to find the facts.

"But if we have students for who the Police have to take charge of because they are totally out of control, then to me that's a serious issue that needs to be dealt with harshly.''