bad behaviour of students, especially some students of the new CedarBridge Academy. We agree with our critics that schoolyard fights are not unusual in any school but most of the incidents we have reported bear little resemblance to what is usually accepted as a schoolyard fight.

We have been very strong in advocating that CedarBridge be given the time to develop its programmes and prove its worth. We are also very aware that the great majority of CedarBridge students and their parents want to get on with learning in a conducive environment. What we have been reporting are the acts of a few, maybe as few as 40 or 60 students in a large school. But the fact is that that number can do a great deal to damage a new school and the public has a right to know that.

When incidents are so bad that they lead to Police action we would be derelict in our duty if we did not report them. We also believe that there may be something more sinister here than the actions of students and that some of the things which happen may well be provoked by older people.

Government action is being taken to rectify the situation, but without the publicity that action would not have been nearly as decisive or as swift. If we allow these incidents to be "swept under the carpet'' they will fester and grow. The time for action is now while the school is new and authorities are anxious to make it work.

Editorials in this newspaper have been strong in encouraging the public and the parents to get behind CedarBridge and make it work now that it is a reality. It would have been very easy to use these events to say: "See we told you it would not work.'' But we have not done that. We believe CedarBridge must succeed.

CedarBridge is a new and hugely expensive school built with public money. The future of Bermuda is very much tied to its success. It would have been unrealistic to believe that there would not be growing pains and we think that what Bermuda is seeing is just that, growing pains.

The students who are causing problems arrived at the new school with a good deal of learned bad behaviour. But, let's be honest, they learned a good deal of that behaviour in other Government schools. That is not the fault of CedarBridge which was created to solve problems.

This newspaper is often criticised for publicising events in the public school system but not in the private schools. The people who say that forget the amount of publicity which an alleged drugs deal at Saltus Grammar school received. In any case, the private schools are financed with private money and the public has a right to know what its money is producing in the public schools.

We have even been accused of making heroes out of troublemakers. It would be sad to think that in Bermuda today trashing buses and kicking students in the head is the stuff of heroes.