The third-grade teacher was arrested for being” “drunk on the job” “after she was pulled out of” class to explain why she had a cup of wine.
On the first day of school, a teacher and a police officer at Oklahoma’s Perkins-Tryon Intermediate School pulled 53-year-old Kimberly Coates out of her classroom.
After taking a breathalyzer test and constantly saying she hadn’t had any alcohol at school, she admitted to drinking half a box of wine until 3 a.m.
Doug Ogle, the superintendent, told her, “You don’t seem like the same person I talked to this morning.” The officer and the school staff thought she might have been drinking since 8.25am when class started.
Thursday, August 17, Coates was arrested for being drunk in public.
Tuesday, the Perkins Police Department released body cam video of Coates’ meeting with school officials and law enforcement. The footage showed the teacher who was said to be drunk.
Sergeant Spencer Gedon, who works for KFOR in Oklahoma City and is our school security officer, was called by the school’s administration.
“When he got there, he saw some things that made him think she might be sick.”
On body cam video, Ogle said that Coates was “acting weird” and “off.” She was told to think about taking a breath test.
Coates agreed to the breathalyzer and said she was taking medicine for nervousness to explain her actions. She said she couldn’t give the bottle because she had taken the anxiety pill earlier in the day and put it in her pocket.
She blew into the machine and got a reading “of 0.24, which is three times the legal limit of” 0.08.
Then, Coates was asked if she had left school that day and if alcohol was in her classroom. She said she wasn’t going to leave the school, but she didn’t answer the last question.
When the cop asked Coates if she drank a lot, she said, “Unfortunately, yes,” and added that she was going to talk to a counselor about it.
Coates said she had the last drink at 3 a.m., but Ogle asked the officer for his professional opinion on whether or not she was “under the influence.”
Sgt. Gedon said, “From what I can tell, she’s definitely an alcoholic who can get by.” He then had her look at a pen while he moved it around to check her eyes. “Yes, she’s drunk,” the cop said.
Ogle told Coates that she had to get picked up and driven home. He couldn’t call her husband, she said.
A school officer was quoted in the Stillwater News Press as saying, “I saw Kimberly had red, watery eyes and thick, slurred speech.” Kimberly had a hard time finishing sentences.
“I’ve been having trouble. Am I going to be fired?” Coates was curious.
The superintendent answered honestly, “Yes, or you can quit.” You’re drunk with kids at school.
Still not saying that she had been drinking since school, Coates wondered if she could still have a high alcohol level in her breath after drinking last night.
Sgt. Gedon responded, “I don’t know how you could still be that high at 8 a.m. unless you drank a lot.”
Coates said she couldn’t call her husband or a friend to come and get her. The cop told her that he didn’t want to arrest her because he didn’t want to ‘humiliate’ her.
Ogle then got her things together and came back with a blue cup, asking what was in it.
Ogle put the cup on the table and said, “No, right, more games.” So what was that all about?
The cop smelled the cup after calling it “juice” and said, “That was wine.” Want to start over?
She was handcuffed and put in jail, and her hands were told to go behind her back.
A representative for the City of Perkins said, “On Thursday, August 17, 2023, at about 3:20 p.m., Perkins-Tryon School officials told School Resource Officer Shane Dean that an Intermediate School teacher might be drunk.”
Deputy Chief Dean said that Kimberly S. Coates, a 53-year-old third-grade teacher, was drunk.
The portable breath test on Ms. Coates “showed that her blood alcohol level was 0.24, which is three times the legal limit. Ms.
Coates was” caught and taken to the Payne County Jail on charges of being drunk in public. He will have to go to District Court.