Maumelle teacher suspended after car crash

A Maumelle High School teacher was suspended with pay Friday morning after crashing her car into a student's vehicle, district officials say.

Police were notified about 8:55 a.m. that there was an "intoxicated teacher" at the high school, according to a Maumelle Police Department report.

Officers found that teacher Sonya Kindall, 46, could not stand on her own and observed that "her speech and movements were slow," the report states.

During an evaluation, officers were alerted that Kindall had hit a student's vehicle while she was parking her car on the school's campus earlier that morning, police said. Neither the student nor Kindall were injured in the accident, Maumelle Police Department spokesman Capt. Jim Hansard said.

Kindall entered the school building and went to her classroom without notifying police of the accident, the report states.

The teacher was transported to Baptist Medical Center for further evaluation because "officers had reason to believe she was under the influence of intoxicants while she was operating her vehicle," the report states.

Kindall consented to giving police a blood sample that will be sent to the state Crime Laboratory to determine if she was intoxicated, according to the report. She has not been charged in the crash yet, but Hansard said he expects she would be charged with driving while intoxicated and leaving the scene of an accident.

The teacher was suspended with pay pending an investigation after the crash, Pulaski County Special School District spokesman Deb Roush said.

Roush said the district would not release any other information at this time.

Maumelle Police Department Lt. Dustin Ivey said Kindall has not been arrested and would not be until those blood test results return from the state Crime Laboratory.

Kindall was arrested March 21, 2012 and charged with driving while intoxicated when an officer found her vehicle stopped in the intersection of Arkansas Highway 100 and Edgewood Drive in Maumelle with two flat tires, according to a Maumelle Police Department report.

Kindall had "slurred speech" and "dilated pupils" and told police she had taken "several medications including Xanax, Klonopin and Seroquel," the report states. She was later convicted of driving while intoxicated, Ivey said.

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Maumelle Police Department

Sonya Kindall, 46, of Maumelle.

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