Officials caught by surprise

Colleton County school officials never had an inkling former teacher Tracy Lee Judy was the emotionally scarred and disturbed man he claimed to be in his suicide note this week, Superintendent Charles Gale said Thursday.

Judy, 37, tried to kill himself with an overdose of painkillers Monday night on the eve of his trial on sexual misconduct charges. He is accused of having sex with a 15-year-old female student. In a four-page suicide note, Judy described himself as a mentally ill Gulf War veteran struggling with "panic anxiety disorder, depression, agoraphobia and other undetermined social disorders."

Officials at the Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center in Charleston confirmed that Judy sought treatment there, but they said federal privacy laws prevented them from discussing the nature of his ailment.

Judy worked for nearly three years as a social studies teacher at Forest Circle Middle School, which serves about 650 students in Walterboro, Gale said. The superintendent said Judy didn't report having any disorders and no complaints were lodged against him until his arrest in April 2008, he said.

"Nothing was reported to me about any abnormal behavior or anything while he was teaching," Gale said. "That (the arrest) was the first thing I had with any disciplinary action with him. If he had any problems, they didn't reach the severity where they would be brought to me."

Judy was placed on leave after his arrest and the state Board of Education suspended his teaching certificate in July. That left Judy ineligible to return to his job when school resumed, and he is no longer employed by the school district, Gale said.

Before trying to kill himself, Judy mailed a suicide note in which he apologized for his actions, railed against police and prosecutors and discussed his mental problems.

He is now recovering at Colleton Medical Center. His hospitalization forced authorities to postpone his trial, which had been scheduled to start Tuesday.

Prosecutors and his attorney, Michael Sean O'Neal, have declined comment, citing the ongoing case.