Judge: St. Paul mom guilty of threatening teacher who intervened in daughter's fight

Talk about it

ST. PAUL

A St. Paul woman was convicted Wednesday of making terroristic threats to a teacher who had intervened in a fight between the woman's daughter and another girl at Washington Technology Magnet Middle School.

The charge is a felony. Sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 1.

Christina Michelle Parks, 29, told the teacher on May 2 that she would come back and "shoot you...and the whole school."

Parks denied making the statement.

Parks took the stand in her trial Wednesday in front of Ramsey County District Judge George Stephenson. She chose a trial by judge rather than jury.

She testified that her 13-year-old daughter called her from the Rice Street school, saying she was about to be "jumped" by some other girls.

When Parks arrived some 15 minutes later, about 4:30 p.m., she saw her daughter and another girl yelling and getting physical -- and then an afterschool dance instructor and another teacher got between them.

Parks said she saw the dance instructor, Quentin Waterkamp, 31, put her daughter in a bear hug and throw her against a wall. The girl ended up in the bushes, and Waterkamp held her down.

Waterkamp told police that he was trying to keep Parks' daughter away from the other girl but that she scratched his neck, so he moved her toward a wall.

At that point, Parks said, she was "a little upset" but not angry.

But when Parks and her daughter got back in her truck, her daughter accused Waterkamp of choking her.

"Her neck was pink," Parks said.

So Parks got out of the truck a second time, got close to Waterkamp and threatened to shoot him and at the school, Waterkamp testified.

Stephenson pronounced his guilty verdict on the spot. He said he didn't believe that Parks would have shot anyone, but "I do believe she said those things."

Distributed by MCT Information Services

Tags: st paul, updates, family, crime, minnesota, k-12, parents, news