LOUISVILLE, Miss. (WTVA) -- Two men are behind bars in Winston County following their arrests in connection with massive vandalism and theft at Winston Academy.
Authorities say the break-ins occured sometime Friday night and will cost the school hundreds of thousands of dollars to restore.
On Saturday evening, dozens of people gathered outside of Winston Academy for a prayer vigil.
"The Lord said, 'Vengeance is mine, I shall repay.' We didn't gather here for vengeance," said the leader of the prayer vigil.
However, some were angry for what apparently happened at their school the night before.
"It's a shame, a shame it had to happen at our school or any school at all," student Joshua Reed said.
Pictures show evidence of classrooms, seventeen of them to be exact, ransacked and damaged.
There were also numerous items stolen, like large-screen televisions and other items.
The school's gymnasium was hit hard, too.
The floor was still covered with what officials believed to be fire extinguisher materials Saturday afternoon.
The girls' locker room and coach's office were turned upside down as well.
The boys' athletic field house had broken glass as well as a trophy case and trophies that were damaged as well.
For the past forty years, Winston Academy has stood here in Louisville.
But residents say they've seen nothing like the vandalism they've seen here.
"It's hard to say [how much this will cost.] It's somewhere in the $200,000 to $300,000 range. It's pretty extensive. We don't know yet; we haven't gone through everything," school board president Robert Taylor said. "They didn't miss much."
"We've never had this before. I've been here for twenty-six years and this is the first time," Headmaster Ferell Rigby said. "We've had some small vandalism before, but not of this extent."
"I first was very saddened, and then I began to cry after lunchtime because I thought 'Lord, thank you so much,' because all of our students and all of our teachers and our administration are safe," said English teacher Patti Johnson.
As far as a motive for all of this, authorities don't at this time.
Louisville Police Chief L.M. Claiborne, while thanking his department, the Winston County Sheriff's Department and
Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, would only say the two will make their initial appearances sometime Monday.
Headmaster Rigby says the students will not be in class Monday either, but Saturday's prayer vigil appears to have helped students already.
"Its just to bring us all back together with what has happened here at the school. This is a good thing for the community,"said Thomas Snyder, a student at the school.
Winston Academy has over five hundred students enrolled in grades K through 12.
Police say some of the stolen items have since been recovered.
