GRAHAM, N.C. – Police believe high school drama teacher Michael Shannon set fire to a school auditorium to cover up a smaller fire that activated alarms during a backstage rehearsal.

Shannon, 28, is charged with arson, as well as obstruction of justice for allegedly telling his students to lie about what happened February 19. Graham police believe a small fire started on the set during rehearsal and was quickly put out, but the resulting fire alarms startled the teacher and he used linens and an accelerant to start a second fire, Fox reports.

“He panicked,” Graham Captain Steve McGilvray told the television station. “And in order to justify the alarm system going off, went out and started another fire in a different part of the auditorium.”

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Police contend a surveillance video shows Shannon wasn’t in a rush to leave when the fire started, leading them to believe he was the source.

“It was not an accidental fire,” McGilvray said. “It was intentionally set.”

Shannon was arrested Monday night in Charlotte and released on a $25,000 bond. He was suspended from duty with pay, and his students are now rallying by his side, Fox reports.

Senior Autumn Horner started a Facebook support page called Friends of the Theatre Unite, and a Twitter hashtag: #saveshannon.

“This is a bunch of crap,” Horner told Fox. “Mr. Shannon would never do that, that’s his home. He spends more time in that theater than he does at his home.”

Ericka Routh, a 2010 graduate and one of Shannon’s former students, also told the television station the theater teacher is a good person.

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“He’s like a father figure to me,” she said. “This is such an amazing teacher, and he doesn’t deserve any of this.”