Deputy Jason Schnurr, a five-year veteran of the Gloucester County Sheriff’s Office, will serve as school resource officer (SRO) at the new Page Middle School this fall.

“I’m very much looking forward to it. Overall, it’s going to be a real honor to be the first SRO in the new school. I care about this community and the people here. It’s a great community to live in. It’s my job to protect and serve, and I look forward to carrying out that duty as part of Gloucester’s newest school,” said Schnurr. 

A Gloucester native, Schnurr attended T.C. Walker Elementary School and Peasley Middle School before his family moved to Virginia Beach, where his father was employed. He graduated from Kellam High School.

  

“Throughout my entire life I wanted to be a police officer. I was intrigued by it. It’s just something I’ve always wanted to do,” he said. “I had a real positive relationship with my school resource officer at Kellam, and seeing an officer at school made me feel safe. That contributed to it also.”

Schnurr’s desire to be an officer led him to volunteer with the police in Virginia Beach as an automotive aide when he was 18. He helped take car of police cars and cleaned and maintained some of the equipment used by the officers. He also participated in the Virginia Beach Citizen’s Police Academy. 

When he turned 20, Schnurr was old enough to go to work for the Virginia Beach Sheriff’s Office. He served there for five years, working in jail and court security, civil process and corrections.

When he and his wife, Erin, talked about having children, Schnurr’s thoughts turned back to his hometown. “I always loved Gloucester growing up, and my wife grew up in a rural area.”

In 2010, he joined the GSO as a corrections officer, a position for which he was already certified. He worked in the Gloucester County Jail for about 11 months before transferring to civil process and courtroom security. In 2011, he attended the regional law enforcement academy and joined the GSO uniformed patrol in 2012. 

As a patrol officer, Schnurr has led the GSO for the last three years in the number of traffic summonses issued. He has also had crisis intervention team (CIT) training, is certified in child passenger safety and has had advanced DUI detection training. 

Last year, Schnurr received the Sally Kerns-Kent Johnson Award presented by the Gloucester Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office for service to crime victims. 

“I’ve really been blessed,” Schnurr said of his experiences as a law enforcement officer. “It’s been everything I thought it would be and more.” 

When former Page Middle School resource officer John Schick Sr. retired last fall, another officer took the job briefly before Schnurr filled in. “I interviewed SROs here and in Virginia Beach and they all said it’s been the most rewarding position they’ve had. They said you can help mold a child and talked about how rewarding it is to see kids take their advice.” 

Schick returned to spend a couple of days showing Schnurr the ropes at Page before the young officer was left on his own. “I’d leave my door open and kids would come in and sit down and tell me things. If something was going on, the administration and I could intervene before anything happened,” he said.

“I tried to remain visible throughout the day and interact with the kids,” Schnurr added. “They can ask some crazy questions, like can you cook a potato with your Taser.” He enjoyed working with the middle school students and decided he wanted to stay on. 

Schnurr attended the 2015 Virginia School and Campus Safety Training Forum where he received 28 hours of SRO training. At Page this fall, he hopes to work closely with the administration on a daily basis and to become involved with the students as a positive role model. He wants to especially promote internet safety “because there is just so much unfiltered information out there now.”

Schnurr also plans to offer the Virginia Rules program at Page. The program, for middle and high school students, provides education on Virginia laws and aims to help students understand the law as it applies to them. 

“Kids are going to make mistakes,” he said. “I’ll do everything possible to help keep them out of the criminal justice system.”

Schnurr will be on the job at Page when school opens on Sept. 8 but later in the month he will be taking some leave. He and his wife have a 4-year-old daughter and are expecting a son in September. 

Schnurr will be getting some help from Brenda Gardner, who is leaving her post as the head of the security team at GHS to work in security at Page. Gardner has 17 years of experience in school security at the high school.

“I’ve been volunteering in Gloucester Public Schools since 1983 and I subbed for a couple of years before I joined security. I just enjoy working with the youth. I thought I’d leave when my last child graduated in 2005. But I love it, I really do,” Gardner said. 

Gardner said she served on the safety committee when school division superintendent Walter Clemons was putting together his comprehensive plan last spring.

“I felt there was a need for a security person at Page, especially since it’s a two-story building. Later, Dr. Clemons asked me if I had an interest in a security position there and I did. I was thankful that they thought to have it.” 

Gardner said there was no specific training for school security personnel during her early years in the job. Around the 2001-2002 school year, the state department of criminal justice began offering courses for the security employees. “Now we get all kinds of training,” she noted. 

Despite all the training, Gardner said the most valuable school security tool is not learned from books, but from experience. “The most important tool is your gut, your instinct, to know when something’s getting ready to happen and to get some help before it does,” she said.

Gardner said she enjoyed working with the eighth graders that have shared GHS while housed in temporary classrooms on the high school campus over the past four years. 

“I look forward to a new beginning and a new school year working with younger kids,” Gardner said. “And I look forward to working with Deputy Schnurr. He seems to be a really nice guy and he is really good with those kids.”