Third-Grade Teacher Arrested For Allegedly Being Drunk On First Day Of School

If you can’t send your kids to school then where can you send them? An Oklahoma teacher is accused of being drunk on the first day of school.

Kimberly Coates, 53, was teaching her class at Perkins-Tryon Intermediate School when she was removed from the classroom and taken into custody.

Coates was questioned by Doug Ogle, the superintendent, and a police officer but denied drinking or being intoxicated. She eventually admitted to drinking a half box of wine in the wee hours of the morning.

At one point Ogle said to her that she seemed ‘like you’re not the same person I talked to this morning,’ The officer and school administration suggested she had been drinking since arriving at school and since class started at 8.25am, the Daily Mail reported.

Coates was arrested on Thursday, August 17, on the anticipated charge of public intoxication.

Sergeant Spencer Gedon told Oklahoma City’s KFOR: that the school administration contacted its school resource officer.

‘Whenever he got there, he saw some signs that maybe she was impaired.’

Footage of the incident has since circulated, in which Ogle is heard accusing Coates of ‘acting weird’ and being ‘off’.

Coates agreed to the breathalyzer, but Coates also tried to excuse her behavior by claiming she had taken anxiety medication. However, she was unable to present the bottle of medication because she put the anxiety pill in her pocket and had taken it earlier in the day.

Coates blew a measurement of 0.24 – three times the legal driving limit of 0.08.

Coates was then asked if she left the school that day and whether there would be any traces of consumed alcohol in her classroom. She said she hadn’t left the school, but did not answer the latter question, the Daily Outlet reported.

The officer asked Coates if she drank often, at which point she responded: ‘Unfortunately, yes,’ and that she was ‘seeing a counselor about it’.

Sgt. Gedon responded: ‘In my honest opinion, I think she’s probably a functioning alcoholic.’ He then checked her eyes by asking her to focus on a pen as he moved it from side to side. The officer concluded: ‘Yes, she’s intoxicated.’

Ogle told Coates to have someone come and pick her up and take her home. She refused to let him call her husband.

‘I know I’ve been having a hard time – am I going to get fired?’ Coates asked.

Answering bluntly, the superintendent responded: ‘Honestly, yes – or you can resign. You’re under the influence at school with kids.’

Coates refused to call her husband even after the officer told her he didn’t want to “humiliate” her by arresting her.

Ogle then gathered her belongings for her and returned with a blue cup – questioning what was contained in it.

‘No, more games, right,’ Ogle said, planting the cup on the table. ‘What was in that?’

She then claimed it was ‘juice’, but smelling the cup, the officer said: ‘That there was wine. Want to try again?’

She was later told to put her hands behind her back as she was cuffed and arrested.