Aren’t there just days? When you just want to stop the work facade. Or stop pretending. Or just give up because of the monotony. Or feel undervalued. There could be many reasons for the blues. Sometimes, these compounded bad days might turn into one day of a complete train wreck. And that is precisely what happened to a once wholesome third-grade teacher.
Kimberly Coates teaches third grade at Perkins-Tryon Intermediate School in Oklahoma. On August 17, 2023, the school’s superintendent pulled her out of the classroom, and was taken for interrogation by a police officer when she was noticed displaying odd behavior. She was found intoxicated amidst young children.
Who Is Kimberly Coates?
Kimberly Coates is a 53-year-old primary school teacher at Perkins-Tryon Intermediate School in Perkins, Oklahoma. Last Thursday, after the classes started at 8:25 a.m., a few school staff noticed unusual behavior from a teacher. Coates was teaching a class of 8-year-olds.
A school resource officer wrote in the police report, “I noticed Kimberly had red, watery eyes and a thick, slurred speech. Kimberly had a hard time completing sentences.”
When the school’s superintendent, Doug Ogle, noticed Coates’s demeanor after the class started, he pulled her out of the class. He also noted that Coates was fine before the morning class. He raised these concerns and immediately alerted the authorities.
What Did the Oklahoma Teacher Kimberly Coates Do?
At first, Ogle calmly explained to Coates why she was being called for interrogation. He told her that they suspected her of “possible intoxication.”
Coates denied that she was drunk. Sgt. Spencer Gedon was not having any of it, given her conduct was just too obvious. He told Coates that she would have to go through a breath analyzer test, and if she weren’t drunk like she claimed, the BAC would display 0s. But when she did the test, her BAC level showed 0.24 reading, which is three times the legal driving limit of 0.08.
In the video, the officer also carried out the Nystagmus Test on Coates, which indicated that she was under the influence of alcohol.
She then spewed a story stating that she consumed “half a box of wine” the previous night and ended up drinking until after 3 a.m.
Sgt. Gedon immediately pointed out the discrepancy in her story–
“Unless you drank at s–t ton at like 8 o’clock this morning, I don’t know how you could still be that high.”
Ogle then pulled out a blue cup and put it on the table–
“No more games, right? What is in that.”
She replied, “My juice.”
By this time, the officer was totally done with her and cut her off instantly–
“Want to try again? That there is wine,” he asked after smelling the cup.
She again replied, “I drank out of that yesterday. I didn’t drink out of it today. I drank out of that coming to work yesterday.”
Coates sensed that no one was buying her story and finally gave in, admitting that she drank while teaching.
The officer informed her that she was going to be arrested for this. Coates broke down and begged for forgiveness–
“Please, please, I can’t do this,” she sobbed. “Please, no, please!”
Ogle told her this was completely unacceptable behavior and might have endangered the children and influenced the impressionable minds. He said, “You’re under the influence at school with kids. That cannot happen.”
Coates was booked at the Payne County Detention Center for public intoxication.
The superintendent later revealed that she was given a choice to resign from the school, but it was certain that she wouldn’t be continuing as a teacher anymore.
Netizens were conflicted by such harsh punishment, while some believed she had a drinking problem that needed addressing. Also, parents would never tolerate that their kids are subjected to such an environment. Here are some reactions to Coates’s arrest–
“She hates that job! Period. When I worked for my last employer during the pandemic I hated that job due to the people I worked with who were stressful! I used to drink and lay in bed. Thank God I got displaced. Truly I pray she finds something else that will bring her joy.”
“People coming to work drunk is very common. 1 of the Unit Clerks in my department at the hospital I work at was caught drinking while AT WORK! He got canned too.”
“Is being intoxicated at work illegal in Oklahoma? I know it may go against school policy and should be fired but an arrestable offense seems a stretch. Maybe it was for admitting to driving drunk.”
“Pay them a decent wage and maybe they won’t drink ..and where is your union rep and lawyer no way is any of these people interrogating me without representation ..”
“Personally IF she’s a cool teacher. I’d have put her class in with mine and found a way to sneak her home or call a family/friend to come get her IMMEDIATELY. Never know what a persons going through.”
“I’ll be honest, I don’t understand why the teacher #KimberlyCoates was arrested; I mean, it’s not a crime to drink at school- it’s wrong, but it’s not a crime. She should’ve been fired, not arrested. If I was her, I’m suing the school district & the police department.”
What is your take on this situation? Do you think Coates should have been detained? Or should she be just fired?
Let us know in the comments section below.
13 Comments
I am a retired teacher with 32 years experience. I was appalled while watching this video. I could definitely see both sides of this story. My first thought was she seemed to have fear of what her husband would do. I have been down that road, too. That fear is real and may have made her start self medicating with alcohol. She obviously needed help before it got to that point but she couldn’t make that decision. We all know she shouldn’t have been in the classroom with children. So little is done to help relieve stress or to pay teachers what they deserve, she deserved to be respected and helped privately, not on U Tube. I hope she is well and pursuing a different career.
She was never mirandized… there was no union rep or advocate. She should have been advised of her rights before any of this happened. She is totally wrong and should be punished, but the cops behavior wasn’t great either. Lying is not illegal. She can’t be trusted to tell the truth when she is blowing a .24. They should have sent her home and let the DA decide if charges were warranted after the fact.
You people with excuses or blaming the cops obviously don’t know the law or don’t care to break them. It’s illegal not only to have alcohol on school premises but drinking on school premises is too. That officer gave her many opportunities to be honest and she chose over and over to obfuscate and manipulate the truth and she wiped her cup out of the evidence. Her entire 3rd grade class were the victims, not Kimberly Coates. She has a problem alright but don’t make it 25 children’s problem, she can’t teach them properly in that condition and I wonder how long she’s been under the influence while teaching, it’s most kikely affected these kids learning. If their scores a4e affected, it’s because of her.
All of these people finding more sympathy for her than the children she endangered says it all about this society..
Now I’m starting to believe the trope about a certain group of women’s tears. She made the choice to drink on the job. She made the choice to lie. She made the choice to tamper with evidence that triggered her arrest.
She was a public school teacher and had resources to get herself help. She chose not to. She is responsible for her actions and deserved everything she got.
Public Intoxication
Tampering With Evidence
Endangering a Child x ??
Neglect of a Child × ??
Lying to an officer in the investigation of a crime
(admission to driving drunk the previous day, admission to public intoxication the previous day)
And arrestable violations dealing with having alcohol, consuming alcohol, and being intoxicated in an educational setting with children present and while assigned care of those children that I might not officially know the names of.
She is a distrct/county/state employee… and any arrestable violations that may include.
Some are SO against police officers doing their jobs that you will fight against obvious violations being processed.
Let’s take one case… what if there was a school shooting and she was unable or couldn’t reason fast enough to protect those children? What if it were YOUR. Child? And it came out that the school could have stopped her, or the police who was sworn to protect the public did NOT arrest her and then something happened due to it?
I am a former addict. I have 23 years sobriety, 20 years as being a sponsor, 18 years of working with addicts in recovery, and 15 years of speaking to groups on these matters. I am praying she gets the help she needs and if presented with her, myself (as I would with any one of my recovery-sponsees), I would work with her on the journey to recovery.
But recovery never means avoiding rightful punishments. It’s accepting them, serving them if need be, facing the ramifications, making full amends, and moving on… having dealt with the consequences and grown beyond when they are through.
Sometimes there is room for discussion and debate on a topic. This is not one the those times. This is time for justice followed by recovery.
I feel absolutely horrible for this woman . There was NO need for this woman to be publicly shamed!! This is awful. She obviously is struggling.
That police officer was a power hungry dick (surprise surprise ) and the other man there was too.
I hope she gets the help she needs and has people who love her to help her.
We ALL make mistakes.
As a retired teacher, the school department had no choice in the matter. Even though Alcoholism is a disease. Yes, she should have requested representation, but she didn’t. In the beginning, they were giving her a chance to avoid arrest if she called someone to pick her up. She would have avoided all this embarrassment and attention if she called someone. When they told her she was under arrest, she decided she wanted to call someone.
I thought the Superintendent had no choice in the matter. Parents would have gone ballistic. He told her to report to his office at 9am the next morning. She was given a choice to resign or be fired. Due to all the publicity, she’ll never be hired as a teacher. I hope, she will get the help she needs, especially for the alcoholism.
All these other comments are not only idiotic but downright disturbing. Something happened in the last couple years that made everyone think so dopey it’s shocking.
People, SHE IS DIRECTLY RESPONSIBLE FOR OTHER PEOPLES KIDS!!! Yes it is a crime to do this, the officer cut her a huge break charging her with PI.
Use your brain, the school district is so lucky they caught this before something serious happened. Everyone would be screaming from the rooftops if, God forbid, something happened to a child that was in her care and it turned out she was drunk. Stop being such an idiot and feeling bad for her. She got hammered and was watching over other people’s kids, hard stop, end of conversation.
Doesn’t matter what “trauma” or stupid “anxiety” she has, what she did was reckless and she has zero accountability. The issue is everyone is a “trauma victim” these days and it makes people think they have an excuse to be a narcissist. Grow up and realize the world doesn’t owe you anything.
With such attention being drawn to treating mental illness and substance abuse lately it surprises me that the superintendent was not more forthcoming with help for this panicked teacher who was under this influence during school hours. What she did was without question wrong but I would have liked to have seen her directed to an agency that could try to help her with her drinking problem. If she can’t even admit to herself that she has a problem I can see why she would lie about it, especially while still under the influence. May God give her the help she needs to heal and be productive in society again.
Why were the police called in the first place?
Not sure of the laws in USA but feel arresting her, was unnecessary.
Being a domestic violence survivor some of her actions when they asked for her husbands phone number displayed she could very well be the product of domestic violence of some form . I feel openly humiliating her during school hours with children present in the school was showing “ power” trips by officer and superintendent. Grant it she may have done wrong but when someone is “ terrified” as it was evident she was they tend to do and say things out of context .. Also if she took anxiety meds and drank the night before it is absolutely possible for her to still be under the influence …
P.o. and superintendent were drunk on power. Not much empathy on their behalf.
Not to say it’s cool for a teacher to drink otj, but it’s not like she was flying a 747. The fact that she didn’t want to call her husband is troubling.
The school district should be more compassionate, after all this is a school setting that involves many folks with personal issues.