Lincoln County authorities are saying what started as a prank early Friday at Bogue Chitto Attendance Center turned into vandalism that left the school with a significant amount of damage and has resulted in two arrests.

     Sheriff Steve Rushing said his department has arrested two people and six others are expected to face charges in connection with the vandalism that occurred between 2 and 2:30 a.m. Friday.

     “Basically, what we have are eight of them,” he said.

     Rushing said the two arrested were James Dalton Sones, 19, of 2124 Mormon Trail, and Benjamin Adam Case, 18, of 1857 McGwire Lane. Both will be charged with burglary.

     “The rest will receive various charges,” said Rushing. “We’ll have to get with the school system early in the week about the amount of damage done.”

     The damage done at the school included breaking the glass of several windows and doors, graffiti, turning on a water hose in the school’s gymnasium, spraying a fire extinguisher in the school’s library, rolling and trashing the school, and desecrating a memorial to students who had died.

     Rushing said the remaining six, involved in rolling and trashing, will face charges in youth court or misdemeanor charges in justice court. Three of the others allegedly involved were students at Enterprise Attendance Center.

     The sheriff’s investigation found the eight initially went to roll the school. While six of them were down on the football field rolling, two others had split off to roll other parts of the campus.

     “From what we’ve learned, they are the two that have done the most of the damage,” said Rushing of Sones and Case. “It started out as a school prank, but for some reason from the statements we got, those two carried it too far.”

     Rushing said he did not believe it was connected to one school versus another.

     “From what I’m aware of, it was not a school-related thing,” he said. “It was a very unfortunate thing that what started as a prank turned out doing a good bit of damage at the school.”

     Rushing said his department was able to work quickly on the case, as his department had information on all eight by around 7:30 Friday night.

     “We had one of their names about 8:30 Friday morning,” said Rushing.