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He is accused of setting a fire Monday in a Powell Middle School bathroom. No one was injured.
By DUANE BOURNE
© St. Petersburg Times, published April 17, 2003
SPRING HILL -- A Powell Middle School student was arrested after he was accused of setting fire to a shirt in the school's first-floor restroom Monday.
The 13-year-old boy, whose name is being withheld by the Times because of his age, was charged with arson -- a felony -- and released to the custody of his parents.
Authorities made the arrest Tuesday after three students told guidance counselor Lili Southerland that the boy, flashing a cigarette lighter, told them that he wanted to start a fire during the school day on Monday.
The boy apparently made good on that promise at 1:50 p.m. Monday.
During seventh period, he walked into the last stall of the bathroom and placed an orange shirt on top of the toilet paper dispenser, according to a Hernando sheriff's report.
Then, authorities say, the boy poured a small, plastic container of gasoline onto the shirt and ignited it with the lighter.
Both the shirt and the plastic container, which he placed on top of the shirt, erupted into thick smoke and flames. According to the sheriff's report, he ran out of the bathroom and returned to class.
Assistant principal Thomas Earl Deen Jr. quickly put out the fire. No one was injured.
"Fortunately, the fire did not spread," said sheriff's spokesman Lt. Joseph Paez.