Nov. 20--HAMILTON TOWNSHIP -- Three sixth-grade boys at the William Davies Middle School were questioned in connection with a Wednesday morning fire at the school, Hamilton Township School District Superintendent Michelle Cappelluti said.
Township police ultimately charged a 12-year-old boy with aggravated arson, causing widespread injury and criminal mischief, said police Capt. Mike Petuskey. The boy was taken to Harborfields Youth Detention Facility in Egg Harbor City.
"There was a lot of damage, smoke damage," Cappelluti said. "Pretty much everything in the bathroom has to be replaced."
Cappelluti said a fire was reported in an A-wing boys' bathroom at around 8:20 a.m. She said it seemed that someone had pulled a length of toilet paper out of a wall dispenser and set it ablaze. She said a district custodial worker extinguished the smoky fire.
About 1,200 people were evacuated from the school while township fire crews worked on the building. After about an hour in the morning cold, Cappelluti said everyone walked over to Oakcrest High School.
The seventh-grade class returned to the school for lunch at around 10:30 a.m., she said, and everyone else was back in by 11:30 a.m.
Cappelluti said that the school has security cameras in its hallways, and officials were quickly able to identify who was near the bathroom at the time of the fire.
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