Timothy D. Fudd wasn't sentenced to jail last week for bringing a loaded weapon onto the Westfield High campus. But he did lose his job.
Fudd, 31, of 2927 Stuart Drive in Falls Church, had been a resource teacher at Westfield since October 2004. Such teachers do special work with students, individually, or in small groups.
But it all came to an end for him, the morning of April 25, when Fairfax County police received an anonymous tip that resulted in school officials searching his car. There, staff members found a loaded handgun locked in the car, itself, not in the trunk.
It was not revealed why Fudd brought the gun to school, but police said he did have a concealed-weapons permit, and the gun was registered to him. Nonetheless, following an investigation by Westfield's school resource officer, Fudd was arrested.
Ironically, as of July 1, Virginia's law dealing with this issue changed. And — since Fudd had a permit to possess a concealed weapon and the gun wasn't in plain view — if the incident had occurred after the new law took effect, he wouldn't have been charged.
But prior to that date, it was a felony to bring a weapon onto school property, so Fudd had to pay the price. He appeared last Monday, July 25, in General District Court and was allowed to plead guilty, instead, to a misdemeanor charge of possessing a concealed weapon.
Judge Mitchell Mutnick sentenced him to a year in jail, suspending all that time and placing him on a year's probation. He also ordered Fudd to undergo mental-health counseling and to forfeit both his handgun and his permit for it.
After his arrest, Fudd had been placed on unpaid administrative leave. Since then, his teaching contract expired and was not renewed by the school system.
<tgl> — Bonnie Hobbs