Obstruction charge dropped in student sex case

Gina Marie Watring, 40, of 106 Cricket Ground, continues to be held in the Durham County Jail under a $2 million bond on charges including first-degree kidnapping, felony child abduction, rape of a child by an adult offender, sex offense with a student and indecent liberties with a child.

Investigators said she had sex with a 10-year-old Creekside Elementary School student on April 10 and April 21. The boy told investigators that he and Watring had intercourse twice at her home, according to court documents. School officials also discovered the sexually charged text messages between the two.

After Watring was released from jail in April, she was ordered not to contact the boy while awaiting trial. She was rearrested in July and charged with obstruction of justice after the boy's mother found a cell phone authorities believe Watring gave to him to communicate.

Watring’s attorney Mark Edwards said Thursday the circumstances merited a bond violation and not an obstruction charge.

Watring resigned from Creekside Elementary after her initial arrest.