An official says children had just left the area where a drunken driver passed through.
NORWAY – There was a silver car where the right fielder normally plays.
At least, that’s what a staffer saw when she looked out the window of a temporary classroom on the grounds of the Guy E. Rowe Elementary School last Friday.
She immediately called Principal George Sincerbeaux.
Sincerbeaux was outside already looking for the silver vehicle, but in the parking lot where cars normally are.
But there was nothing normal about this situation.
Police had been looking for the silver car – later alleged to be a Kia driven by Kelly Croteau, 33, of 87 Manley Road, Auburn – for about one hour before it entered the school property.
Croteau had already allegedly hit two vehicles in Norway and was the subject of phoned-in complaints for erratic driving on Route 26 from Poland to Oxford.
She entered the school property at the parking lot, the only entrance, and then drove on a sidewalk right past the temporary classroom around the far end of the basketball courts, police said. She then drove through right field about 75 feet from the children’s playground monkey bars and other equipment.
Croteau drove on the south end campus and exited by driving down a 2-foot tall wall, dislodging a 6-foot granite stone in the process. She crossed a sidewalk and landed on Main Street and headed south on Route 26.
Sincerbeaux shook his head in recalling the event. Luckily there were no students on the grounds. Luckily there was nobody walking on the sidewalk and luckily Croteau did not hit any cars in entering a busy corner of Main Street.
Sincerbeaux said if Croteau had entered the playground about two minutes earlier or later the result might have not been so lucky.
Two minutes before Croteau entered the parking lot, 125 first- and second-graders had just finished recess.
While she was reported as being on the grounds, about 135 fifth- and sixth-graders were lined up in the hall waiting to go to recess.
“I’ve been an educator for 30 years and nothing close to this has ever happened,” Sincerbeaux said. “I don’t think you can find a more secure, safe school than this. The doors are locked, it’s fenced in and there’s a wall in front.
“How do you defend against someone who had been drinking?” he asked. “Of course it’s scary.”
Croteau was later found at the Oxford County Fairgrounds when she inadvertently got locked in.
Paris Police Sgt. Michael Dailey, who brought her to the Oxford County Jail, said she registered a 0.18 on a Breathalyzer test.
She was arrested and charged with operating under the influence.
He said she received six other summonses including: two counts of leaving the scene of a property damage accident, reckless conduct with a dangerous weapon, criminal mischief, trespass by a motor vehicle and driving to endanger.
Police reports said the cars of the people she allegedly struck had $500 and $1,000 in damage.
The schoolyard and softball field at the fairgrounds were damaged.
The rear door on the driver’s side of Croteau’s car was bent and the window was blown out.
“It’s not funny,” Sincerbeaux said. “This could have been a terrible tragedy.”
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