THE vandals that attacked a Worcester school this week, for the third time in as many months, is a depressing indication of the malign effect a small group of individuals can have on a much larger number of people.

The chances are only a handful of wreckers were involved in throwing crab apples at Perry Wood Primary School, an attack that left one window smashed and several others smeared with fruit pulp.

But every child at that school was a victim of that mindless destruction.

Not only will the school's budget be £85 lighter by the time the window is repaired, which means less money available for books and stationery, but resources will have to be drafted into the clean-up operation which could be more profitably used elsewhere.

Then there is the effect on the children's education of demoralised teachers who feel as if they're working under siege.

Now the police are calling for the majority of pupils who play no part in acts of vandalism to report the small number responsible for destruction such as that seen at Perry Wood.

They'll have a hard task ahead of them give the unwritten code of honour that forbids children from `grassing' on their peers.

But let's hope the message gets through before Britain's traditional annual vandalism season - the school summer holidays - gets

under way in earnest.

Otherwise, by the time the autumn term starts in September, many more children and adults will have their lives blighted by the minority who delight in destruction.