The fire caused $134,000 in damage.

The students were removed from the school to clean up the damage inside after police said someone intentionally set a fire in the boy's bathroom.

The Pender County Sheriff's Department charged a 10-year-old student with the "burning of a schoolhouse" after they say he used a cigarette lighter to set a paper towel dispenser on fire.

According to Detective J.O. Leatherwood, of the Pender County Sheriff's Department, the boy's age complicates the case.

"In the investigation, you have to take into consideration the age of the juvenile, very young, 10 years old. Obviously I would deal with this a little bit differently if it was an adult, someone 16 or older," Leatherwood said. "It's a tough deal for a 10-year-old, it's tough."

The charge is a felony and could land the boy in a juvenile detention facility. No court date has been set.

No one was injured in the fire, but it did cause $134,000 in damage. And school officials said it will take a cleaning company seven days to restore the school.

"We have a major air quality problem that we have to address," Joyce Keith, of Pender County Schools, said. "We have to completely clean up that air quality in order to get students and staff back into that facility."

The school's temporary closing is leaving mothers like Crystal Autry scrambling for childcare.

"It's hard because they're up here with me [while I work]. Today is the first day I have had a babysitter. I have had them since Monday up here running around, crazy," Autry said.

The school is set to reopen on Dec. 15, leaving children out of school for nearly two weeks.

School district representatives said they had no other choice.

"There is no space. Malpass Corner has about 500 students and there are 85 staff members and there is no place within the county to relocate them," Keith said.

The official student make-up days are still being decided by the school district.