Oklahoma authorities arrested a third grade teacher after she blew three times the legal limit on the first day back to school.
Kimberly Coates, 53, was allegedly drunk while teaching her students, raising suspicions in the elementary school’s resource officer, Shane Dean, Stillwater News Press reported.
“I noticed Kimberly had red, watery eyes and a thick, slurred speech. Kimberly had a hard time completing sentences,” Dean wrote in the police report.
Dean, along with Perkins-Tryon School Superintendent Doug Ogle, confronted Coates at 3:20 p.m. with Perkins Police Department officers present. Authorities conducted a breathalyzer test on Coates, and she blew a blood alcohol level of .24, three times the legal limit.
“I asked Kimberly again how much she had to drink,” Dean wrote in the report. “Kimberly stated she drank some wine on her way to work this morning. Kimberly denied drinking any this afternoon.”
Body camera footage shows officers examining a styrofoam cup which Coates claims was just Diet Coke. Authorities then presented Coates with an empty blue plastic cup, and officers asked what she had used it for.
“My juice,” Coates replied.
The officer then smelled the cup.
“Want to try again?” he asked. “That there is wine.”
Coates eventually confessed that she drank half a bottle of wine the night before, and she didn’t stop drinking until 3:00 a.m. In addition, Coates said she was seeing a counselor and was taking a medication for anxiety, but she couldn’t give the name of the medication.
The teacher was arrested and taken to Payne County Jail after refusing to call a ride to pick her up, Fox News Digital reported. She is facing charges of public intoxication.
Following the incident, the school district released a statement to parents.
Last Thursday, I was made aware of a possible situation involving a staff member. I immediately contacted the Perkins Police Department, whose officers oversaw the investigation. The school district conducted an internal investigation and cooperated with law enforcement. The teacher involved has since resigned.
Alcohol abuse has become a prevalent issue amongst women. Breitbart News reported that between 2018 and 2020 women’s alcohol-related mortality rate increased by 14.7 percent.
“Women are now drinking alcohol at higher amounts and frequencies than in the past, likely due to the normalization of alcohol use for female individuals in society,” a JAMA study stated.