Teen girl indicted in threat to school | 'I will shoot up the school' found on bathroom stall in New Boston

Serenity Laine Parks
Serenity Laine Parks

TEXARKANA, Texas -A 17-year-old girl accused of writing threats of a school shooting on a bathroom stall door at New Boston Indepen-dent School District has been indicted by a Bowie County grand jury.

Serenity Laine Parks was indicted Thursday for terroristic threatening and two counts of tampering with or fabricating physical evidence in connection with statements penned in September on the door of a stall in a New Boston High School girl's bathroom.

Texas treats defendants 17 and over as adults in the criminal justice system.

New Boston High School Principal Neil Koenig contacted the New Boston Police Department regarding the menacing graffiti Sept. 24, according to a probable cause affidavit.

"I hate this school and everybody in it. Watch out you might be first. On Friday 9-27-19 I will shoot up the school," the affidavit quotes the writing found in the stall.

Parks is allegedly the student who brought the writing to the attention of school officials Sept. 24. Using surveillance footage, investigators determined Parks had entered the bathroom the class period before she enlisted other students to go with her to the bathroom and observe the writing.

Parks allegedly gave an account to investigators that conflicted with those given by the other girls who accompanied her to the bathroom. When confronted and asked if she was responsible for the writing, Parks allegedly gave a denial and lamented that other students were blaming her for it.

New Boston Police Lt. Johnny Millwood told her she could prove to the other students she was not to blame by taking a polygraph. Parks allegedly told him she would take the test and returned to class after Millwood told her state investigators would contact her with the time and place.

A short time later, he asked the school's information technology technician to check Parks' current internet and web email history on her school-issued Chromebook. The technician allegedly told him there had been recent Google searches for "how to beat a polygraph test," general searches for information regarding polygraph examinations and a search for "how to fake passing out."

The internet searches on Parks' computer were allegedly made after her meeting with Millwood and Koenig. Koenig allegedly received an email Sept. 25 in the evening that appeared to come from a different female student and claimed responsibility for the threats.

The following morning, Millwood arranged for the school's information technology technician to remotely lock access to the school-issued computers in the possession of Parks and the student named in the email claiming to accept responsibility. Koenig went to the second student the morning of Sept. 26 and asked if he could look at her computer. The student immediately complied and "looked confused" when asked if she had sent Koenig an email the evening before, according to to the affidavit.

Surveillance video allegedly showed the second student did not use the restroom on the day the writing was first brought to the attention of school officials. A review of Parks' internet activity on the evening when Koenig received the email containing a supposed confession from another student showed that she allegedly had logged out of her school email account and logged into a Google Gmail account. Parks' email and internet browsing activity was allegedly deleted during the time when Koenig received the confession email, according to the affidavit.

Each of the three felonies facing Parks is punishable by two to 10 years in prison, if convicted.

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