Officer Ivy Jacobsen's Hero Was Her School Resource Officer, Now She Walks In His Shoes
Officer Ivy Jacobsen's Hero Was Her School Resource Officer, Now She Walks In His Shoes
Jacobsen credits the relationship she had with her SRO as the reason she spoke out, now she's an SRO and wants to 'be a hero' for the next generation
Officer Ivy Jacobsen was raised to mistrust and avoid the police.
“It was instilled in me, and my brother and sister who are younger than me, to hate the police,” Jacobsen said. “And to not talk to police officers.”
She said her father groomed her in this way in part to cover up domestic abuse in their home.
“Our father was very abusive,” she said. “It took me a long time to understand that what he was doing was wrong.”
In her sophomore year of high school, she contacted the authorities and disclosed the fact that he had been sexually abusing her since she was in the fifth grade.
“To this day I have flashbacks of moments that you try to forget,” she said. “Just one of the curses of PTSD.”
Jacobsen credits the relationship she had built with her middle school SRO, Officer Dave White with the Marysville Police Department, as the reason she reported what was happening to her.
“He ultimately paved the way for me, in building that relationship, to trust an officer, or trust the police,” she said.
She said White was a mentor, a hero for her, and in the years since he has become something of a father figure.
After her father was arrested, the Marysville Police Department wrapped her and her family in a big hug, she said, and the Dawson’s Place Child Advocacy Center helped her and her family navigate the criminal justice system.
That support changed her life, and set her on the path she’s on now.
“I was very inspired by what they did for our family to start public speaking about what my family went through and what our father did to us,” she said.
Jacobsen said she realized that she had a passion for using her story to help other victims, folks who may be silent and still enduring abuse, to seek help and talk about what they’re going through.
That’s when she realized she wanted to become a law enforcement officer and be the hero that Officer White is to her.
Now things have come full circle, and Jacobsen is wrapping up her first year as a school resource officer in East Wenatchee, Wa. She said it has been a pivotal point in her career and calls being an SRO a “dream job.”
Now she’s the one building relationships with students.
“Every day I am working with our youth. Impacting and inspiring them and attempting to lead them in the right direction,” she said. “I’m the happiest when I’m with them.”
An SRO is in a unique position because they are tasked with keeping students and schools safe. But it’s also about being a coach, a mentor, and even a friend to students.
She said it’s an opportunity to bridge that gap between community and law enforcement, and hopefully, former students will have positive relationships with law enforcement in the future.
“You start building those relationships now in the school so that these kids, as they grow up and become adults in their careers they can look back and reflect on a positive relationship they had with a police officer,” she said.
Jacobsen has become a confidant and mentor for some students, especially female students.
“Some girls will tell me about a breakup situation they’re going through and they’ll ask how they can cope or get through it,” she said.
They also ask for her advice. Mostly though they just want to vent and be heard, so she listens. It’s about having the intuition to know what the individual student needs at that point in time.
“It’s just a matter of listening and responding in the way that they ask and not being too motherly, or giving too much advice if that makes sense,” Jacobsen said.
She also seems to be doing her part to inspire a new generation of young women to take an interest in law enforcement as a career path.
Jacobsen said she’s had young women approach her and say they want to become law enforcement officers too. She said she tells them to go get at least an associate’s degree, maintain physical fitness and a solid employment history, then apply to be a first responder and see if it’s the right fit.
When not walking the halls of Eastmont schools or directing traffic, Jacobsen and her partner, Officer Issac Cooper, can be found in uniform at most Eastmont High School athletic competitions.
I wrote a shorter article featuring both SROs that is featured in the Eastmont School District newsletter this month. That newsletter is delivered to all households within the Eastmont School District boundaries, and you can watch a video featuring Jacobsen and Cooper I produced for Eastmont here:
In Other News
I’ll be writing a weekly column for SourceONE News, which we announced this week. I’m grateful for the opportunity to write on the platform and plan to highlight stories that inspire, entertain and inform the people of Eastern Washington. You can read my first column here.
I’m also working on another story for Crosscut, as well as part two of my series on the Wenatchee Valley Humane Society. Then I have an update on Tyler Chambers’ story, with his point of view, and a story about the Chelan County PUD.
Also, Mike Wilson’s trial starts soon and I’ll be covering that as well.