Since starting as the School Resource Officer to the approximately 715 students at Page Middle School, Gloucester, on Nov. 1, Deputy Skysha Nettles is already making a difference at her school and on the Gloucester High School basketball court.

“I’ve always wanted to work with kids,” she said.

Nettles joined Gloucester County Sheriff’s Office in April 2020 after working at Sussex I and Sussex II state prisons in Waverly for two and a half years. While there, she mentored juvenile inmates serving adult sentences by “teaching them a different way to express their feelings.”

The youngest juvenile she mentored was only 15 years old and she taught him how to deal with his temper by writing poems, which he turned into raps.

After serving at GSO for over a year, Nettles was enthusiastic to be asked to serve as Page Middle School’s SRO and appreciated the opportunity to be a mentor to the students there.

Every day on the job at Page, Nettles makes a point to tell students “good...