Three teenagers have been charged in connection with a fire that gutted the house of Nicholas County High School teacher early Thursday.
“It was a childhood prank that went bad,” said Nicholas County Sheriff Dick Garrett.
Garrett Young, 18, of Mount Olivet, was charged with third-degree arson and criminal mischief, Kentucky State Police said. Both charges are felonies punishable by one to five years in prison.
Jordan Stewart, 18, of Carlisle, was charged with one count of criminal trespass, a violation punishable by a fine.
Garrett said a 17-year-old boy was charged with criminal trespass, a misdemeanor.
A juvenile female who was at the scene but who did not get out of a vehicle was not charged, Garrett said.
Garrett said the teens are students at the high school.
Hank Bond, spokesman for Nicholas County Schools, said the district has been made aware of the situation and will cooperate with law enforcement. Bond said he could not comment on any further action that might or might not be taken.
Young and Stewart, who was issued a citation, could not be reached for comment Thursday afternoon.
Nicholas County Fire Chief Mark Hughes said a kind of fireworks known as a “cake” was put on the porch of Dreama Griffith’s house on Walnut Grove Road, near the Nicholas-Bourbon county line.
Cake fireworks are more complex than smaller fireworks such as Roman candles and bottle rockets.
Garrett was called to the house shortly after 11 p.m. Wednesday. The fireworks had damaged the soffit on the porch, but it didn’t appear to be burning or smoking, Garrett said.
But then firefighters were called to the house shortly after 2:30 a.m. Thursday, Hughes said. By that time, the fire was “fully involved,” he said.
Apparently sparks from the earlier fireworks explosion had gone through the eaves of the roof and into the attic, where insulation smoldered and caused the fire to spread, Hughes said. “All that’s left are the brick walls,” Hughes said.
Griffith, who teaches English at the high school, got out of the house uninjured. Firefighters were able to rescue her two cats that were hiding beneath a bed, Hughes said.
Garrett said Griffith is staying with her parents.
Young was released from the Montgomery County jail on a $5,000 full cash bond. He is scheduled to appear in court April 8.
Bond and court information for Stewart was not immediately available Thursday.
Is anyone surprised that this occurred in Nicholas County?
nope
IMHO or ejp: Are eitehr of you from Nicholas Co.? If not, what is your community like???
After a student got by causing a problem with the principal and having his(principal) hands tied , others are doing even worse.
What about the ???parents????.
No one wants to discipline their children any more nor do they want anyone else to either.
Parents now just want to sue and gripe, then later these(angels???) get into greater trouble and then the parents again blame others.
These parents should be given some jail time/Not probation and maybe after some time behind bars(jail) someone might act as responsible person…..
What kind of law?????official would actually call this a prank?
The same one who pushed a mobile home off the highway.
Are the people really proud of this IGNORANT,ILLITERATE supposedly officer of the law.
PRANK>>>
Can you imagine.
I’m sure the good, responsible and thinking citizens of Nicholas county are ashamed.
Sounds like time for a change….
No longer in Nicholas Co. for a reason.
What’s up in Nicholas county. They have come to the attention of the national media TWICE in the recent past. Both times the publicity was very unflattering. These incidents reinforce the image of Kentuckians as a bunch of rednecked hillbillys and frankly I find it embarrassing.
Lets move Nicholas County to another state!
“Apparently sparks from the earlier fireworks explosion had gone through the eaves of the roof and into the attic, where insulation smoldered and caused the fire to spread” Yep that is dangerous and that is what you can’t know until it is too late and you are almost dying in it.
“Griffith, who teaches English at the high school, got out of the house uninjured.” Really glad this person got out, thank heaven, they can rebuild or what have you. I am thankful!
A woman lost her home and it is considered a CHILDHOOD PRANK gone bad? Wow. Seventeen- and eighteen-year-olds know better. There is nothing childish or cute about what they did.
Thank God the homeowner is safe.
Sad to say that one side of my family originally was from Nicholas County and the other from Lincoln. It appears that Nicholas is attempting to take over the “weirdness” rating from Lincoln and Pulaski Counties. I hope the good people of Nicholas County see fit to send their Sheriff out to pasture at the next election.
Guess these two “pranksters” are old enough for the “big jail” now!
No one is responsible for their out of control children anymore it seems. The parents should have to pay to build her a new house or go to jail. They have to be held responsible. And if the court system does not rule in her favor, then the court system is no better than those children that did the criminal mischief.
to buttfull woman and the rest of you guys:
We people of Nicholas County would love to move to another state to get away from the rest of you people especially since you keep sending all these people to us. #1 Trailer woman was from somwhere else and brought her brood and troubles to us. #2 Kid was from somewhere else and brought here after he was thrown out of another school. #3 Kid that started the fire from somewhere else. Maybe the rest of you should stay away from us and quit sending your welfare people here to take more and more away from our citizens.
i want to know why those kids reacted the way they did. why did they do this? was this teacher one of those that really hates kids but they get the summers off!! i have met and come in contact with a lot of teachers, and a superintendent that have no business dealing with our children! open your eyes , listen to to your children!! there are teachers who discipline by humiliation, and by embarrassing children in front of their peers. yes the parents have the greatest responsibility in the developement of their children, what kind of people they become , but teachers also spend an enormous amount of time with our kids. they should learn how to spot the kid that gets beaten at home, the kid that has to take care of his whole family because his parents both were blind, the child that doesnt get anything to eat at home just at school, the kid whose mother spends the nights with her boyfriend leaving her child at home to fend for himself, yes these are real stories from kids who my children were friends with. i believe there should be an investigation into the fire but start with a chat with that teacher and other kids in her class. what kind of person is she? what would make children target her . ia m not excusing what these young people did i am just saying dont forget they are young people who may be looking for guidance or help .
I just want to respond to reggieinky - first of all you’re right, you don’t know ANYTHING about this teacher. However, I do! I see her just about everyday & do you know that she takes time out of her schedule to help some of these kids who need it? NO YOU DON’T!! Did you not hear on the news that the kids said they liked the teacher? Evidently not. She is a kind and generous lady who would give you the shirt of her back if need be. The reason these kids targeted her is because she is so sweet and forgiving, just like her friend on the news said, if the kids did apologize to her, she would forgive them and I know for a fact that she would. Don’t even think about putting the blame on this teacher!!!!
reggie - I would submit you are the one in need of guidance and help. At least two of these persons are “adults”, fully responsible for their actions under the law. Your irrelevant stories about other situations, which may or may not be true, and your psychobabble about asking other kids “what kind of person she is”, are symptoms of the root problem - a generation of kids growing into adults who have no appreciation of or respect for the rights of others, and who have been allowed to live a life without consequences for their actions, because it’s always someone else’s fault.
The sheriff appears to be underplaying the severity of the situation because he clearly DROPPED THE BALL:
“(Sheriff) Garrett was called to the house shortly after 11 p.m. Wednesday. The fireworks had damaged the soffit on the porch, but it didn’t appear to be burning or smoking, Garrett said.”
The sheriff made a judgment call on the status of the fire without calling the experts, the fire department. Had the sheriff followed what I’m certain was procedure and had the fire department investigate, the house never would have burned down and a prank would have been only a prank. What if the teacher had been caught in the house and died because of the sheriff’s inaction?
All of nicholas counties troubles seem to be caused by people from others places and not by residents according to “tiredoftherestofyou”. Maybe deadbeats are going to nicholas county since they have an idiot for a sheriff and a population that tolerates deadbeats and criminals.
I am absolutely appalled that someone would even remotely suggest that this teacher is a certain “kind of person” that deserved to be targeted. I am an educator. I do not live in Nicholas County, do not know the teacher or the others involved in this, but do know this: NO teacher deserves to have this happen to them. NO child, teenager, or adult should have attempted such an ignorant stunt such as this. It does not matter if the teacher is a good teacher, a bad teacher, or somewhere in between. It does not matter if the teahcer was loved by all her students, or hated by all her students. What these students did was wrong..plain wrong. Students do not look for guidance by setting fireworks off on a teacher’s porch.
Reggieinky: Reggie, Reggie, Reggie. .I knew you were going to get slammed on that one buddy. As the nice person said above this teacher goes above and beyond to be a great teacher. She gets it honest because her mother was a great one too. Her mother taught myself and my child and now Ms. Dreama is teaching my child in high school. One of her main concerns right now is that “her kids” are going to be hurt in all of this. Go Figure. . . .That is why we stay in Nicholas County.
About the kids. . . Nice, pleasant kids with nice pleasant parents.
I don’t think the problem is that the kids are mean or unparented. . .they are just kids 18 or not, still kids that don’t think. Don’t think about what consequences will be to their actions. My child loves Ms. Griffith but I can see them being led to be involved in this “prank” not thinking it would result in anything serious. Pray for all involved. . .aah. . .maybe that is a cause. .we’ve took prayer out of the schools and all the lessons that we learn with prayer.
There are many good people in Nicholas. Many of the students do need more parenting and that is one thing that the school does have to take on their shoulders. Maybe the media can realize where Mr. Orazen was comming from when he restrained the student. I have lived with the people of Nicholas and just because of 2 situations doesn’t mean we should ban them from Kentucky!!! What about all of the other cities that have this kind of media attention on a day to day basis. As for Dreama Griffith, her forgiving nature from God is the true spirit of Nicholas county residents.
First of all none of you even know these kids!! All you old farts are the dumbest people i know that have nohing better to do that sit around and read the the paper and make comments about other countys. What is going on in your areas drug busts and shootings. If you wanna talk bad about nicholas county move here then you can say something about it. I hope that all of you are proud of yourselfs for bashing young kids and you dont even know the real story you only know what the news tells you. Another thing if all you have to do and is sit around and talk bad about other areas you dont know anything about get a JOB!!! Also the principal incident he wasnt even from here he is a buckeye and tried to bully everyone he meet so basically he got what he deserved and im glad that you all wanna bring up stuff from the past!!!