Teenagers at the Bermuda College have been warned to clean up their act or face losing their student hall.

Posters went up around the student centre last week after trash was repeatedly found discarded around the area.

Members of the Student Government Council got so tired of being left to clean up the mess, they resorted to stark warnings that threatened to close down the social meeting place.

The poster read: "Student Centre Shut Down -- continued mistreatment of student centre will result in a shut down.'' But yesterday Advisor to the government council Gary Simons said the posters should not have gone up without his agreement.

And he said he believed the issue could have been resolved if a meeting had been held with the students, rather than the threat of closure.

He said: "There has not been any vandalism or violence -- this is purely a trash issue. That is all the mistreatment is.

"The students have been continually leaving trash on the floor and the government council was tired of picking it up.

"The posters were put up to warn the students that if they didn't leave the student centre in a more tidy environment, then the council was going to shut it down.

"But the posters should never have really gone up. The student government did not get authority from me, as advisor, so they should never have been put up.

"I think it's better to communicate with the students at a meeting and ask them to keep the centre clean, as opposed to putting up posters and threatening to close the building down for the day.'' He said the council was meeting yesterday afternoon to discuss the problem and he hoped the trash issue would be resolved soon.