Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

To the editor:

My name is Jeff Jones and I retired from the Davie County Sheriffs Office this summer after working there for the past 15 years.

Initially, I began working with the sheriff’s office in the patrol division. But after a year, I was talked into going to the high school by Chief Deputy Brian Jacobs. Brian was a lieutenant and lead SRO over the schools at the time and I was lucky to work with him for the next eight years before he went back to patrol and recommended me to take over his position.

I was blessed to continue in this position for six more years, spending almost a decade and a half at Davie County High School working with multiple administrators, coaches, guidance counselors, office staff and social workers.

Being the lieutenant over the SRO program the last half of my career gave me the pleasure of working with the administrators and other staff members at all the elementary and middle schools. I had a close working relationship with the superintendent and watched our Board of Education members work hard to make sure our schools had everything they needed.

I leave this position knowing one thing.

Our community, including myself, is extremely blessed to be able to raise our families in Davie County. I know the school system is not perfect. But I can tell you that the staff members at the schools are dedicated to our kids and work tirelessly to make sure our kids get everything they need. I have seen the schools work from within and am extremely proud of how hard everyone works to come together to make things happen for our kids.

I also want everyone to know how closely our sheriff’s office and school system work together and how they constantly work on training and making sure we have the best plans in place to keep our kids safe. I personally know deputies from other surrounding counties that work in the schools and can vouch their relationship between law enforcement and the school system is not comparable. This creates problems for law enforcement and the schools as there can be a lack of understanding about incidents on each side and how they should be handled. I have been told more than once about how unusual it is for a school system and law enforcement to get along and work together as well as ours.

I wanted to take the time to write this so I could bid farewell to the all staff and the kids at the schools because I will definitely miss them.

At the same time, I wanted to make sure that everyone should know just how lucky we are here in Davie County and hear about it from someone that has seen it first hand and been an active part of it on the inside of our schools for a long time.

God Bless Davie County.

Lt. Jeff Jones