photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

The Douglas County Judicial and Law Enforcement Center is pictured on Sept. 4, 2024.

Updated at 5:05 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 1:

Two juvenile girls have been charged with felony aggravated arson after a fire was reported in the girls’ locker room at Lawrence High School on Monday.

The Lawrence school district on Tuesday said the two students had been arrested but did not indicate what they had been charged with, nor how the fire is believed to have been started. A message to the LHS community said only that the fire originated at a paper towel dispenser that extended to a combustible trash receptacle below. The message did not reveal the extent of damage from the incident, which also caused the high school to be evacuated on Monday. Nor did it indicate what type of discipline the girls faced in school — only that disciplinary consequences would be “in line with our policies.”

No one was injured in the fire, which Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical said had been extinguished by a single sprinkler head in the locker room.

Online court records provided little information because the girls are juveniles, but records indicated that both had been appointed counsel. Both girls appeared in court via Zoom on Wednesday for detention hearings. One is a sophomore; the other is 14, and her grade was not provided. Both entered not guilty pleas.

The state had requested that one girl be detained and the other be released, but the judge released both from the juvenile detention center. They are both on house arrest with electronic monitoring, and both must attend the detention day school. Neither one may have contact with the other.

The girls are next scheduled to appear in court on Nov. 12.