It might have just been the first day of the school year, but the year was already full of trouble for a teacher in Oklahoma who had to take a breathalyzer test and failed it on the same day that her pupils came back to school.
That teacher is Kimberly Coates, a 53-year-old third-grade teacher who was allegedly drunk while teaching her young students. After she was caught, she had to take a breathalyzer test and failed it by a long shot, blowing three times the legal limit.
Ms. Coates’ conduct allegedly raised the suspicions of the shool’s resources officer Shane Dean, who wrote in the police report about the incident, “I noticed Kimberly had red, watery eyes and a thick, slurred speech. Kimberly had a hard time completing sentences.”
So, suspicious because of Ms. Coates’ behavior, Mr. Dean approached and confronted Ms. Coates alongside Perkins-Tryon School Superintendent Doug Ogle at 3:20 p.m. Also joining the party were the Perkins Police Department officers present. Together, those authorities conducted a breathalyzer test on Coates, and she blew a blood alcohol level of .24, which is three times the legal limit.
Writing about what happened next in the report, Mr. Dean said, “I asked Kimberly again how much she had to drink. Kimberly stated she drank some wine on her way to work this morning. Kimberly denied drinking any this afternoon.”
While that was going on, officers then examined a styrofoam cup. Coates claimed it was just Diet Coke and so they asked her what an empty blue plastic cup was for and she told them, “My juice.” The officer wasn’t having that. He smelled the cup and said, “Want to try again? That there is wine.”
Things then went downhill fast for Coates, who confessed to the authorities that she drank half a bottle of wine the night before and didn’t stop drinking until 3:00 a.m. She then refused to call a ride to pick her up and was taken to Payne County Jail, as Fox News Digital reported. She is now facing charges of public intoxication.
Tthe school district released a statement to parents after the incident in which it said, “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.”
Unsurprisingly, alcohol abuse is a major issue since the pandemic, with substance abuse issues picked up during it adding to those already existing and creating a major problem. Surprisingly, the issue is one that is increasingly afflicting women. “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.
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