By: LeAnn Childress
Officer Snively said that this is his first time working as a Resource Officer and he enjoys being around kids and since his career has been in law enforcement safety has been a priority.
He also feels that this area of law enforcement would be exciting and fun to do and so far, it has been exactly that.
Officer Snively shared that shortly after his wife retired, they moved to a new area where he worked delivering car and truck parts.
He found this job to be unfulfilling and during a conversation with Chief Livengood the subject of restarting the Resource Officer program came up and he told the Chief that he was more than interested. Snively’s Law Enforcement Career continued with North Central Local Schools on April 12, 2021.
Resource Officer Snively’s career started in 1975 as a reserve police officer with the Bryan Police Department and in 1978 he was hired fulltime.
While working there he was promoted to Sergeant, Field Training Officer, and he initiated the Canine Program and was the first canine handler.
Snively was also a Reserve Advisor, and he spent a couple of years in the Man-Unit which is the drug task force. Snively found the Drug Task Force to be very interesting and even though it required long hours of sitting surveillance for drug buys he enjoyed it and found it to be very eye-opening.
When Kevin Beck was elected Sheriff, he asked Snively to be his Chief Deputy and when Beck left, and the new Sheriff came in the chief deputy position was eliminated. At this point Snively went to Northwest State Community College and joined their police department.
He served there for a few years and then this brought him to the point of his wife’s retirement, moving, and his current position.
Hiring in during the second half of the school year has allowed Snively to get to know the staff, students, and the culture of the school.
During the summer months he will be involved in trainings, learning how the schools’ administration wants him to do things, and getting programs set up so when the new school year starts, he can hit the road running.
Currently, there are 615 students and going into the new school year, he will have a good understanding of how best to serve them and the staff.
Officer Snively shared that during his first couple of weeks the students in the younger grades would run up and give him hugs and now he receives hugs daily.
He went on to say that it is a neat feeling because the children are not afraid of the uniform and it helps to build that bond early so as they grow up, they will not see law enforcement as their enemy as a lot of people do now.
Snively said that his priority is safety, safety of the school and the people in the school. He is looking at different areas that might need changed to help make the school safer and he will keep doing that as long as he is there.
He will be looking to implement different safety programs for the different age groups some of which include, the harm and damage that results from sexting, bullying, death by suicide, vaping, drugs, and alcohol.
Officer Snively begins his day by greeting as many of the students and staff that he can. Then he moves on to the cafeteria to talk to the students as they are eating breakfast.
After the students make their way to the classrooms then he makes at least one round to the superintendent’s office, the high school and middle school principal’s office, and the elementary school principals office.
He checks in to see what is going on and if there is anything that he should know about and to find out how everyone is, and what the climate of the school is for the day.
After his morning rounds then, he looks for different trainings on the computer for refreshers, updates, and new information.
Once this is completed then he moves back to the cafeteria during the lunchtime meal to talk with the students and to help the younger students with their meals such as opening food packages and encouraging them to eat.
Sometimes the little ones become engaged in what is happening around them instead of eating and the older students are encouraged to eat more and talk less.
During meal time, Snively keeps his conversations and direction with students fun while encouraging them to eat.
After lunch, he makes another round in the school and sometimes, if time permits, he goes out onto the playground and plays with the kids, but not as often as he would like.
Field Day took place over the past few days for grades one through sixth and Snively had the opportunity to serve as a Team Leader where he got to encourage the children to do their best and cheer for them.
This was another occasion for the youth to see him in another light, not just as a figure of authority, but as a person having fun and who is relatable.
Snively said because of the time of year that he hired in during the school year, he has spent more time with the elementary and middle school students but that will be changing for the 2021/2022 school year.
He has been reaching out to other Resource Officers in the state to get ideas of what they do and the programs that they have put into effect.
Officer Snively goes on to say that there have been a couple of incidents where he has had to sit with the principals when talking with students who have gotten themselves into trouble.
He has had to explain to these particular students that he is not there to harass them but to help and to help the administration and staff to enforce rules as well, but not to discipline because that is not his job.
He has had to write a couple of reports but in these cases, they are educational in nature to help the youth understand that once they enter the adult world that the type of behavior that the student exhibited as a youth will then become criminal in nature.
If a student does something criminal, then Snively’s written report is critiqued by the Chief of Police and then it is forwarded on to the juvenile system in Bryan.
One area where Officer Snively would like to make an impact is to help students see law enforcement as a positive because there is too many negative connotations in this profession.
He is hoping to help students understand how to keep themselves out of trouble and from going down a dead-end road and end up in the system, jail, or prison. Another area of concern that Snively pointed out is the impact that cell phones have on today’s youth.
Cyber-bullying is at their fingertips as well as other harmful information. Today’s youth are aware of how to hide harmful and secretive information inside of an app which then can be hidden inside or behind another app or program and is difficult for a normal forensic sweep of the phone to detect.
Snively said it is hard to tell when a student is distressed, some youth will say that he or she is depressed while others hide their feeling or ignore you all together.
Snively said that there are school counselors who he can reach out to if he has a concern about a student and that there are many community resources that he, parents, teachers, and other staff and community members can reach out to for information and guidance for others and themselves.
He will be in contact with more agencies this summer gathering their contact information and the areas that they handle.
He would also like to reach out to other Resource Officers in the area to possibly meet once a month and talk about different programs that they have implemented or are thinking about putting into place, as well as what is working and what is not working.
They can also keep each other be informed of what is happening in each community and reach out to each other.
LeAnn can be reached at publisher@thevillagereporter.com