A 1990 Indian Lake High School with many years of dedicated service to her community has been tapped by Governor Mike DeWine as the chief training officer overseeing the Ohio School Safety Center’s new Safety & Crisis Division, as announced this week during the Ohio School Safety Summit in Columbus.
Mary Davis, a Huntsville area resident, is now in her 28th year working as a peace officer. While her first 16 years was spent serving in local law enforcement in Southeast Ohio, her career in recent years has included roles at the state level.
“Helping and serving others has been a true calling in my life and I look forward to focusing that service on the safety of Ohio’s youth,” she said about her new position.
Davis said she grew up in Northwestern Logan County. A former executive director of the Ohio Peace Officer Training Academy, Davis’ background also includes serving as an Athens County Sheriff’s Office deputy, a sergeant with the Hocking College Police Department and the deputy director of education for the Ohio Peace Officer Training Academy and Commission (OPOTA).
Her family moved back to the Logan County area in 2011 after she began a position with the Ohio Attorney General’s Office.
Davis’ husband, Brian, is a local business owner of Dovetail Metal Signs & Design, and their two sons, Isaiah and Silas, graduated from Indian Lake High School as well.
House Bill 99, which was signed by Gov. DeWine in June, created the Safety & Crisis Division to develop and provide training for school staff members whose districts opt to allow certain employees to be armed on school grounds.
DeWine created the Ohio School Safety Center in 2019. It is housed at the Ohio Department of Public Safety and works to assist local schools, colleges and universities, and law enforcement agencies to prevent, prepare for, and respond to threats and acts of violence, including self-harm, through a holistic, solutions-based approach to improving school safety.
Also during the Ohio School Safety Summit, Gov. DeWine announced that more than 1,183 K-12 schools across Ohio will receive state assistance totaling $47 million to pay for security upgrades as part of his Ohio K-12 School Safety Grant Program.
Included in the grant awardees are local school districts Bellefontaine City, Benjamin Logan, Indian Lake, Riverside, Ridgemont and West Liberty-Salem, as previously detailed in the Examiner.
Grants equal the amount requested by each school up to $50,000. Funds will be used to cover expenses associated with physical security enhancements such as security cameras, public address systems, automatic door locks, visitor badging systems and exterior lighting.