Trio of youths charged in Middle School blazes
Published on July 12th, 2006
STONEHAM,MA - Stoneham investigators pressed charges against three middle school students suspected of setting several trash-barrel fires within facility bathrooms this past spring.
According to both School Supt. Dr. Joseph Connelly and Stoneham Police Lt. Jim McIntyre, the criminal complaints were filed after a joint investigation by both town departments in the aftermath of the blazes, the first two of which were reportedly set in a second floor boys' bathroom last April 5.
The three adolescents, all juveniles, stand charged with burning the contents of a building and disturbing a school assembly.
"We want people to know that if they do something like this, an investigation will commence and they will be held accountable for their actions," said McIntyre in a phone-interview on Tuesday, adding that there have been indications that a number of Stoneham teens have been playing with lighters over recent months.
"I think it's important for parents to know that the schools did take a proactive approach to this," the Police Lieutenant added, when informed that various rumors were circulating around town about the blazes.
According to school and police officials, a trash barrel was discovered set ablaze on April 5, and authorities immediately conducted an investigation to identify the person responsible for the fire.
Tipped off about a student who was seen with a lighter earlier in the day, both police and school officials questioned the youngster, who reportedly admitted to setting some toilet paper on fire in a bathroom stall.
"Fortunately, the boy who was involved in lighting the toilet paper on fire [in April] was able to extinguish it by putting it in the toilet. And although he is being held accountable for that, the other two students' actions were much more serious," explained McIntyre, who made it clear that all three of the suspects' parents cooperated with police in every way they could.
That pupil further implicated a second adolescent for the unrelated barrel fire, but the suspect allegedly denied having any role in starting the blaze, which remained contained to the trash receptacle until it was put-out.
However, on May 1, after yet another barrel was discovered in flames in a boys bathroom - resulting in the Middle School's evacuation when fire alarms sounded - the student implicated for that blaze purportedly admitted that he did so at the prompting of the previous suspect for the earlier April incident.
Again confronting that juvenile, police and school officials finally obtained a confession from the youth, leading to him being charged for the April 5 garbage fire.
"He denied any involvement, and there was not much that we could do to tie him in," said McIntyre of initial attempts to implicate the first teen. "But when we identified the suspect after the second fire, we learned that he was coached by the suspect from the first fire."
According to Supt. Dr. Joseph Connelly, he can't detail what specific actions were taken against the three middle schoolers because of pupil confidentiality concerns.
However, the Superintendent did confirm that all three of the juveniles were swiftly dealt stiff disciplinary action after they were confirmed to be involved in the incidents.
"It certainly was and is our interest and our intent to take every appropriate legal action that we can because of the seriousness of this situation," Connelly commented. "I'm not at liberty to discuss the disciplinary actions taken against the students, but they were strongly disciplined for these actions."
"I thought the middle school administration, working in conjunction with the police department, were very responsive and handled the situation very well."
"We do have a zero-tolerance policy for something like this. And when you have a situation as serious as this, we will respond to the fullest extent of the law. Fires in the school are absolutely unacceptable," the Superintendent added.
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