Lying in bed one night 12 years ago, having just been expelled from school, Brittany Jackamonis had a revelation about where her life was heading.
“I cannot be this person,” Jackamonis, then 18, told herself. “There’s no way I can be this dropout from high school after all these years I’ve been in school, and I know there’s so much more I can do.”
In addition to not finishing school, Jackamonis worried about possible removal from the Richland County Sheriff’s Department Explorer Post, which introduces young people to the law enforcement field while teaching them discipline, accountability and responsibility.
It’s a program that Jackamonis, now 30 and a sergeant with the public information division of the Sheriff’s Department, said changed her life and transformed her from a troubled kid with no respect for authority into a law enforcement officer, the State reports.
