SRO selected

For several years, Jay School Corporation used a rotation of officers on a part-time basis to handle school security.

Now a full-time leader is in place.

The school corporation and Jay County Sheriff’s Office this week selected Cody Jessee to be the corporation’s first full-time school resource officer.

“When I started at the sheriff’s department originally, I wasn’t sure. It was just a side gig,” said Jessee, who started in his new role Thursday. “And then when I actually got out here I enjoyed being around the students, providing a safe educational environment for them and being a role model.”

Jessee, a 2011 Marion High School graduate, has been one of the rotation of part-time officers who have provided a law enforcement presence for Jay Schools over the last few years. It was his approach, as well as his desire and willingness to go above and beyond the call of duty to make schools safer — he volunteered to be part of the implementation of use of metal detectors even when he was off the clock — that made him the joint choice of the sheriff’s office and school corporation for the new job.

“Cody’s demeanor is that he’s pretty calm, level-headed,” said Jay County High School dean James Myers. “He’s willing. He’s eager to grow into that position as we envision it.”

“For me it was just watching him interact with kids, his ability to build those relationships with the kids and staff,” added principal Chad Dodd. “He’s very good at that. He’s eager to be involved in some of the extra things we’ve done for school safety.”

He will be stationed at Jay County High School, which after consolidation next year will be home to about half of the corporation’s students, but is responsible for overseeing security at all school sites.

Under the new arrangement between the school corporation and the county, Jessee will be on a Jay Schools campus from 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. each day classes are in session. (He will work as a sheriff’s deputy during the summer months, and the school corporation and county will split his salary on a 75/25 basis.)

His duties include enforcing federal state and local laws, investigating crimes originating on campus, developing plans and strategies to minimize dangerous situations, developing a safety plan for outside threats and serving as a liaison between the school corporation and the sheriff’s office. He is, in general, not responsible for being a school disciplinarian.

Jesse’s hiring this week is the culmination of about a year and a half of work to put the full-time SRO position in place. It’s the latest step in a push for improved school security following the Valentine’s Day 2018 school shooting in Parkland, Florida.

“(The part-time) system worked for us for a while,” said Dodd. “But with school safety evolving to what it has, we felt like one person, that consistency, that ability to oversee district-wide all of the safety plans for all of our schools, we just felt like it was time to get one set of eyes in here looking at school safety.”

“It ensures that we have someone present physically with the schools every school day,” added Jay Schools superintendent Jeremy Gulley. “My only regret is we don’t have enough money to have an officer in every school.”

Gulley noted a variety of other school safety initiatives that have been or are being put in place, including ballistics film on windows and doors, constructing secure entrances to each building and the implementation of the Say Something app. Trained school employees also have access to a firearm, which is kept in a biometrically controlled safe, in case of an attack.

After graduating from Marion, Jessee went on to earn an associate’s degree in criminal justice from American Intercontinental University. He was hired by Portland Police Department in 2014 and became the handler for the department’s K-9 Katja in 2016. He graduated basic SRO school in 2018 and is in the process of completing his certification for threat assessment.

Outside of career, he describes himself as a pretty simple guy who enjoys working out and spending time with his girlfriend and dog.

Among his priorities during his first few weeks on the job will be visiting all of the Jay School Corporation buildings and getting to know staff and students. He was already moving on that task Thursday with an afternoon visit to Bloomfield Elementary.

The most rewarding part of being a part-time SRO, Jessee said, was getting to interact with students — some of whom he had been in contact with previously in a law enforcement capacity — in the school atmosphere and being a positive influence in their lives. That’s something he hopes to continue and expand on in his full-time role.

“I’ve worked in police work for about five years, so I’ve seen some of these kids when they were a little bit younger and they were in and out of trouble,” he said. “It’s ironic that those are the ones that actually talk to me the most. … That’s very rewarding to try to help them.”