Third grade teacher arrested for allegedy being drunk on the job

A third-grade teacher was arrested for allegedly being drunk on the job during the first day of school after she was pulled out of the classroom for her “off” behavior.

Kimberly Coates, 53, was found to be three times over the legal limit while teaching students last Thursday at the Perkins-Tryon Intermediate School, in Perkins, Okla.

A newly released bodycam video shows the moment officers and administrators confronted the dazed teacher, who cried and begged not to be arrested inside the school.

“No more games, right? What is in that,” asks Superintendent Doug Ogle, pointing at the blue cup Coates had been drinking from in the morning.

“My juice,” Coates replies before being cut off by the school resource officer.

“Want to try again? That there is wine,” the officer says after smelling the cup.

Coates tried to excuse her odd behavior by blaming the anxiety medication she had taken, but a breathalyzer test showed a BAC level of 0.24, three times the legal driving limit of 0.08.

Although she denied that she had been drinking on the job, Coates did admit to drinking “half a box of wine” the previous night, which she continued until after 3 a.m.

“I drank out of that yesterday,” she said of the blue cup. “I didn’t drink out of it today. I drank out of that coming to work yesterday.”

She then admitted to drinking alcohol on the way to work Thursday morning after Sgt. Spencer Gedon contradicted her story, telling her: “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 also appeared to dispute her story, noting that she appeared to be fine in the early morning before classes began at 8:25 a.m.

When the officer told her that she was under arrest, Coates broke down, begging him not to take her in.

“Please, please, I can’t do this,” she sobbed. “Please, no, please!”

Asking about her job, Ogle informed Coates that she was indeed going to be fired, but also gave her the option of resigning.

“You’re under the influence at school with kids. That cannot happen,” Ogle said.

Coates was eventually removed from the school and booked at the Payne County Detention Center for public intoxication.

The school district said in a statement that it is conducting an internal investigation of the incident while cooperating with law enforcement.