students had caused as much as $35,000 worth of damage to the school since its opening.

The Royal Gazette understands the damage inflicted to the $60 million facility included smashed glass boxes encasing fire extinguishers, emptied extinguishers, and graffiti.

CedarBridge principal Ernest Payette previously would not comment on the amount of damage before reviewing a report which was originally expected in early December.

But although Mr. Dill said he had not yet seen the report, he said "the numbers were simply inaccurate''.

And Mr. Dill said destructive students would be heavily penalised for causing damage to the property.

"Rather than be overly concerned about the amount of damage, we're taking preventative measures,'' he said. "Because of the nature of the damage -- graffiti and such -- it's very difficult to actually catch them.

"However, the students who are caught will be treated harshly. I believe there have already been some suspensions.'' Mr. Payette had previously commented that the damage was due to malice and school design problems. He said that although security staff were attempting to monitor the situation, he described CedarBridge as "a hard plant to supervise''.