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EDITOR’S NOTE: The Daily News is doing a series of features on some of the new and returning School Resource Officers (SRO) to let people get to know them as the new school year kicks off. Our next story features Gardner Newman Middle School SRO Jennie Phillips-Lawson.

Long careers in law enforcement and education make Jennie Phillips-Lawson a perfect choice to serve as School Resource Officer for Gardner Newman Middle School.

Before joining the LaGrange Police Department, Lawson taught kindergarten for 10 years in Merriweather County. Lawson has been with the police department for a total of 19 years.

“I took 18 months off, right after my grandparents passed,” Lawson said. “I came back this past May, and then I came directly into the schools.”

Lawson is also a veteran SRO, having been nationally certified in 2011.

“I was here as a courtesy to Gardner Newman, back around that time when I taught D.A.R.E.,” Lawson said. “Then I became a detective in special victims.”

She said her love of kids inspired her to become an SRO.

“I just always loved kids and try to put some semblance of an impact on them before they get into the world,” Lawson said. “It’s quite manipulative sometimes out there for some of them and I’m just trying to give them a safer space to do what they need to do.”

Lawson said raising her own family and her time in SVU helped her connect with kids.

“I’ve got a daughter who’s actually just started sixth grade this year in Auburn,” Lawson said. “My oldest is 30. My youngest will be 24 this year. And then my husband and I have Lily, which we adopted. She was 18 months old.”

“I’ve gone through many transitions of life, honestly, raising kids and special victims, I felt like I raised a good bit of these kids that I’m coming back to now, where I used to look at them or get down on their level. Now I’m actually looking up to them because they’ve grown so much.”

Lawson said she has a variety of roles at Gardner Newman.

“My primary role is to protect these children inside this building and outside this building,” she said. “But I also want to connect to these children. I want them to be able to rely on me. I also want them to trust me, and I want them to understand that one bad apple somewhere else doesn’t make us all the same.”

Lawson said one of the biggest tools to connecting with the students is just getting involved.

“My activities with them is this gym down here, which is currently full. I’ve got volleyball games going on as we speak. Softball is playing as we speak. Thursday is football. The other day we had scrimmage games. It’s always going. Cheerleaders are loading onto buses going to games and things like that,” Lawson said, saying she doesn’t coach but is there to encourage the students.