Usually, people go for drinks after work. But an Oklahoma third-grade teacher was arrested after the administration caught her inebriated on the job on Thursday, Aug. 17.
Law & Crime posted the bodycam footage of school resource officer Sgt. Shane Dean on YouTube.
In the video, the Perkins-Tryon Intermediate School superintendent Doug Ogle and third-grade teacher Kimberly Coates sat in an office with Dean and another staff member present. Ogle informed her about staff members noticing a concerning change in her demeanor.
“You’re not the same person I talked to this morning,” Ogle said. He asked if she had consumed anything that day.
Coates explained she had taken “anxiety medication” the night before. But when Sgt. Dean asked, she said she consumed anxiety medication that morning.
As Dean prepared the breathalyzer test, Coates changed her story, saying she dealt with depression. When a woman asked if she had anything to drink, the third-grade teacher, on the verge of tears, nodded but exacerbated the situation when she said she drank last night.
“I wouldn’t bring it into the school,” she said, referring to alcohol.
The breathalyzer test came back 0.24 BAC, triple the legal limit.
After the merry-go-round that she took them on, Dean concluded she was intoxicated from the 0.24 results and the eye exam she took. Dean allowed Coates to call someone to pick her up and avoid legal troubles.
The worst she would’ve endured was losing her position.
But Coates continued playing around and even tried convincing them that she only drank last night until 3 a.m., saying the alcohol could still be in her system. But Dean countered the claim by stating staff members reported she was fine in the morning, but her mien changed in the afternoon.
They presented her options numerous times: to have someone pick her up and avoid walking out in front of everyone, or be taken to the police station.
“We don’t have time to keep sitting here and doing this,” Ogle warned.
Eventually, Coates agreed to call someone, and Ogle left to retrieve her purse and phone from her classroom. He then returned with a tall cup and her purse. Dean smelled the cup, which reeked of wine.
Dean got fed up and decided to bring her in. According to a press release from the City of Perkins, Coates was processed into the Payne County Jail on a public intoxication charge despite her pleas and tears. She was released from jail.
In a statement to KOCO News, Perkins Police Sgt. Spencer Gedon stated, “The school got on it fast. As soon as there was a concern about that teacher, they went into action and did what they needed to do, and they were doing everything they could to make sure everyone was safe at the school.”
