WINNSBORO – The Fairfield County School Board officially accepted the resignation Tuesday night of a Fairfield Middle School math teacher and defensive coordinator for the Fairfield Central High School Griffins football team who was arrested on drug charges Dec. 6. David Nathaniel Toney’s resignation was effective Jan. 17, sources told The Voice.
“He understands that this is an unfortunate situation and he did what he felt was in the best interest of everyone involved,” J.R. Green, Superintendent of Fairfield County Schools, said.
Toney, who is facing his third charge of simple possession of marijuana since 2006, was scheduled to stand before a Magistrate’s Court judge on Jan. 9. That trial was postponed when Toney’s lawyer, Doward Keith Harvin, requested a jury trial. A new trial date had not been set at press time.
Toney was stopped by the S.C. Highway Patrol (SCHP) on Highway 34 near I-77 on Dec. 6 while en route to the state championship football game between Fairfield Central and Dillon. According to the Highway Patrol, Toney was clocked traveling 67 in the 55 MPH zone. The arresting Trooper in the case reported a “strong odor of marijuana” emanating from Toney’s 2008 Chrysler Aspen. The trooper asked Toney if there was any marijuana in the vehicle, to which Toney replied that he “hoped not,” the report states.
When the trooper asked a second time about the marijuana, Toney reportedly said that he had “a little bag,” and retrieved a clear plastic bag of marijuana from the center console of the vehicle and handed it over to the patrolman.
A search of the car turned up a marijuana cigarette inside a cup that was sitting in the center console, as well as “numerous burnt marijuana cigarettes inside the same cup,” the report states. Toney was arrested and transported to the Fairfield County Detention Center where he sat out the championship game.
During a traffic stop in Columbia on Dec. 21, 2006, a Richland County Sheriff’s deputy found a partially burned marijuana cigarette and a small bag of marijuana in Toney’s car. On May 17, 2007, Toney was stopped in Calhoun County, where a deputy also found marijuana in the car. Toney was convicted in both cases (see the Jan. 10 edition of The Voice).
“We wish Mr. Toney well in the rest of his career,” Board Chairwoman Beth Reid said Tuesday night.
