Vandals ransacked a Devonshire school over the weekend causing thousands of dollars worth of damage.

Prospect Primary School on Friendship Lane was broken into sometime over the weekend and the damage was discovered by the assistant principal when she went to retrieve some personal items on Sunday.

She found that someone had broken windows, doors and light fixtures, toppled over shelves of books and strewn books and teaching materials over the floors of every classroom.

Hallways were filled with debris, art supplies had been used to plaster graffiti on the walls and a water fountain was ripped from the wall and left leaking in the main corridor.

The only items that appeared to be stolen were some soft drinks from the administrative offices, although it will be impossible to tell if anything more was taken until the clean-up is well under way.

School principal Marva Outerbridge said: "I have been in education for many years, and I have never seen anything like this.'' She noted that the school's summer camp was meant to start in about a week, but due to the vandalism it would be unlikely that it could go ahead.

"Our main concern is that the school is ready for students in September,'' she noted.

Acting Education Minister Nelson Bascome said he was "saddened to hear about the wanton vandalism at the primary school''.

He added: "I know that the community in this area respects what this school has done for its pupils and for these culprits to randomly vandalise the property is very sad.

"I hope that the people responsible are caught and that they feel the full strength of the law.

Vandals ransack primary school "There is also a service that provides vandals an opportunity to reimburse victims and I would like to see it used.'' Opposition Education Minister Tim Smith said: "Vandalising a school property is tantamount to destroying opportunities for children. It is disgusting and incomprehensible that vandals cause such damage.'' He noted: "It is clear that school properties need to be secured in a far more effective way than present.

"Burglar alarms and motion sensors could certainly go a long way to minimise the extent of damage done.'' There has been discussion from both political parties about improved school security, such as erecting fences around institutions, but little has been done.

The report produced by the PLP for their first 500 days in power noted that the Ministry of Education had conducted a survey of all principals and teachers-in-charge to identify their concerns with respect to safety and security at their respective sites.

The report added: "A variety of issues must be addressed as a result of these inquiries, including the erection of fences to control access to the premises, the provision of motion detection lights in order to discourage access at night and the provision of intruder detection devices.'' Although petty vandalism is a common occurrence, there have been several instances of more serious vandalism.

During renovations at Berkeley Institute in 1998, vandals spray painted graffiti over several newly painted walls and fixtures.

And three youngsters caused more than $1 million of damages to Harrington Sound Primary School after setting a fire in a classroom, which later burned out of control.

Primary school ransacked