Legal Responsibilities of a
Juvenile Firesetter and Their Family
As an educator, you play a critical role in ensuring the fire safety of your school, neighborhood and your community. Juvenile-set fires are preventable. To solve this problem, however, you must first understand why children set fires. For many children, firesetting is the result of curiosity and experimenting with lighters and matches. For others, it is a serious cry for help or a way to deal with crisis, change or peer pressure. Regardless of the root cause, as a teacher your responsibility is to recognize emerging behaviors and provide tools to students to help curb the behavior.
Many students and their parents are unaware of the legal consequences and potential criminal charges they may face for setting fires. Parents may also be unaware that they may be held financially responsible for their child’s behavior. The following information is designed to provide an outline of the financial and legal consequences of firesetting behavior. We can solve this growing problem by working together to raise students’ awareness of the danger and power of fire and directing them in its safe use.
Following are the Florida Statutes that apply to juvenile firesetting.
Inform teen students of the risks and how they can change the course of their life with one strike of a match. Click here for a printable PDF copy of the statutes:
Summary of Florida Statutes