We could, as some have, vilify her. Demand her resignation from the Anchorage School Board. Strip her of her status as an elected leader and role model. Damn her for eternity.

Or we could acknowledge that she's human and that she made a terrible, potentially deadly mistake. We could trust the courts to punish her. And we could capitalize on her status as a leader and role model to illustrate how very public and humiliating the consequences can be when we do stupid things.

That's pretty much what happened at Monday's School Board meeting. Marks spoke to a large and captive audience, fighting tears while admitting her mistake and apologizing for it.

Groups like Mothers Against Drunk Driving wield the most effective tools for persuading people not to mix drinking with driving -- often in the form of wrenching testimonials from people who lost loved ones in drunken-driving accidents and horrifying pictures of alcohol-fueled accidents.

Though sometimes MADD comes perilously close to advocating a return to prohibition, the group has made our streets a safer place. According to its Web site, alcohol-related traffic deaths in the United States have fallen 44 percent in the 25 years since MADD was formed. During the same time there's been a dramatic shift in public toleration for drunken driving and the penalties for drunken drivers.

Her arrest in Fairbanks last month made statewide news. She's been the subject of talk-radio rants, letters to the editor and news stories. Her apology on Monday put her back in the news, with much of her speech airing on television.

In this regard, Marks paid more than the typical first-offense drunk driver, who spends three days in jail (a term Marks has already served), attends substance-abuse classes, pays a fine, loses their car temporarily and faces increased insurance premiums.

Marks' punishment included a career setback -- she was in line to become president of the Association of Alaska School Boards in a few years, and that won't happen now.

"I've had that brought up a lot,'' she said. "Some people feel if I were non-Native, my name wouldn't be splattered across the state, but because I'm Native and a woman, I've already got two strikes against me.

School superintendent Carol Comeau has said that she's worried about the example sent to kids by the actions of Marks and Patrick Henry, a vice principal at South High also arrested for DUI earlier this year.

But the arrests happened. The best the district can do is turn them into teachable moments, the way Marks did when she spoke at the School Board meeting and made an example of herself.

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