Warwick Academy will dismiss its students early on October 31 to protect them from potential Hallowe'en hooligans.

Principal Bernard Beacroft revealed this yesterday to The Royal Gazette following an attack by Warwick Secondary students on students from his school.

More than four Warwick Academy students, ranging from ten and 16 years old, were waiting for the bus on the northern side of Middle Road around 4 p.m. on Wednesday when students in a bus -- which stopped to allow passengers off -- sprayed them with a fire extinguisher and threw eggs at them.

The students, reportedly from Warwick Secondary, also threw the extinguisher which weighed between five and ten pounds at the students.

Mr. Beacroft, who called the Police, said none of his students required medical attention. But he stressed that the incident could have been much worse, if the extinguisher had hit someone.

"Four students came to my room,'' he recalled. "Two were badly covered in eggs and the other two, who were girls, had been sprayed with the extinguisher. And they said others had also been sprayed.'' Mr. Beacroft said it was not the first time that students from the private school had been targetted by other students.

"This is a fairly persistent problem I'm afraid,'' he said, adding that he had written to Warwick Secondary principal Patricia Holder who was not available for comment yesterday.

Mr. Beacroft said he had also called Chief Education Officer Joseph Christopher and Public Transportation Board senior supervisor Albert Thompson about the incident.

He said Mr. Thompson did not believe the extinguisher, which Police took, belonged to the PTB.

Mr. Beacroft also said he did not believe the attack was provoked.

"I suppose they see our children as good targets,'' he added.

Asked what could be done to prevent a similar situation from happening again, Mr. Beacroft said there was no easy solution.

"While we have teachers on duty for 15 minutes afterschool when most buses leave, we can't put inspectors on buses everyday,'' he noted. "We can't expect Police to ride up and down behind buses, and we can't expect teachers to ride on the buses everyday.

"All we can do is appeal for good behaviour.'' Mr. Beacroft admitted that Mrs. Holder "has a difficult task to try to identify'' the Warwick Secondary students involved in the incident.

But he said he wanted to "find out who the culprits are and make an example of them''.

Parents, some of whom had called the Education Department and PTB, were very upset about the incident, Mr. Beacroft added.

"It's a difficult situation. But I think if we make some noise about it, maybe something can be done.'' To protect the students from similar acts of hooliganism which have become the norm during Hallowe'en, Mr. Beacroft said he had already notified parents that classes at Warwick Academy will end at 1 p.m. on that day "so that they (students) can get home before any problem arises''.

Bernard Beacroft