Village of Mantua, Crestwood Local Schools clash over school resource officer hire

The Village of Mantua has been saying for months that it has hired a full-time school resource officer for Crestwood Local Schools, but school officials aren’t on board.

Crestwood’s Board of Education has not approved Jasmine Villanueva, the village’s pick for an SRO, and does not anticipate doing so, district Superintendent Aireane Curtis said.

In the past, Curtis said the police department has presented her with the names of interested candidates. Her team conducted interviews, chose the candidate they felt most matched their needs and informed the MPD, which conducted background, reference and other qualifications checks. The village shared its information with the school district, which evaluated the data and either hired or rejected the candidate. 

That, she said, did not happen this year. Curtis did not respond to The Portager’s question as to how and when the school district was notified that Mantua had hired Villanueva as a full-time SRO.

What is on record is that Villanueva’s application to the MPD is dated Sept. 12, 2025. She listed her position of interest as school resource officer. She interviewed with MPD Sgt. Alfred Gilbert, who on Oct. 1, 2025 recommended that she be hired.

Curtis acknowledged she penned a Nov. 3, 2025, email to the mayor, indicating she and her team had interviewed Villanueva for the SRO position.

“We would like for you to offer Jasmine Villanueva the position of SRO if all of her references and requirements for the village check out,” Curtis wrote. “We did not offer her anything as I know this must go through the village.”

However, when the village failed to share any additional information with the school district, Curtis said she and her team did their own checking. And what they found in Villanueva’s Portage County Sheriff’s Office personnel file concerned them.

Acting MPD Police Chief James Clemens confirmed Villanueva's employment in a Nov. 6 fingerprinting request to the PCSO. According to the state attorney general’s office, Villanueva joined the MPD on Nov. 19, 2025. Clemens authorized her as a full-time SRO Nov. 25, 2025, and village council unanimously approved that appointment during its Dec. 16 session. She was to start her duties the following week.

Neither Clemens nor Mantua Mayor Tammy Meyer responded to The Portager’s question as to whether the information in Villanueva’s PCSO file was cause for concern. Though The Portager attempted to reach Villanueva through the Mantua PD, the mayor’s office and her attorneys, all efforts to reach her were unsuccessful.

What the district found

During her less than four-year tenure with the PCSO, Villanueva amassed a number of disciplinary write-ups, including for reportedly mishandling her service revolver, breaching confidentiality, lying and not fulfilling her duties. Specifically, the file includes:

• A Jan 25, 2022, Notice of Disciplinary Action related to her having violated three PCSO policies: completing official reports, report writing and property and evidence security.
  
  
• A related letter of reprimand rooted in her having “established a pattern of conduct of not completing reports in a timely manner, conducting proper floor up investigations, maintaining accurate records and filing criminal complaints when warranted.”
  
  
• A January to April 2022 performance review that takes her to task for her social media posts, continued inability to get her reports done independently or in a timely manner, “constant interruptions in the office,” and disinclination to help her colleagues.

The review also notes that Villanueva “still has to be asked by Captain [Mike] Davis to leave the office, do follow-ups and start to conduct some investigations.” It stated that she was disruptive, and that she wasn’t holding her weight or being “a team player.”

Specifically noted in the review is a note that on April 20, 2022, while conducting a field operation in Ravenna, Villanueva unholstered her service revolver and left it within reach of a confidential source who was in the squad car.

The report indicates that Villanueva had been spoken to “on different occasions in reference to the handling and placement of her duty weapon” and this time had, as she had done previously, “attempted to lie several times.”

As of May 2022, Villanueva’s work ethics, work habits and unit performance had not improved, the report notes. 

Villanueva was subsequently removed from the PCSO’s Drug and Violent Crime Unit and reassigned to road patrol duty effective May 17, 2022. Her disciplinary record also contains 
a June 26, 2022 “Letter of Counseling” citing violation of the PCSO’s sexual harassment policy.

“There have been complaints from some coworkers about you trying to hug them,” the letter stated. "I have been told that you get into their personal space which makes them feel uncomfortable.”

The letter notes that sexual harassment does not need to be sexual in nature, “but unwanted touching could be perceived as such.” Villanueva was informed that if her behavior did not change, disciplinary action would follow.

She was ordered to take training in regard to the PCSO’s sexual harassment policy and to have no similar incidents for 90 days.

Her file also includes references to her having improperly handled evidence found in a victim’s vehicle and having breached confidentiality when she discussed and named informants during a hallway conversation at the county courthouse.

Curtis did not respond to a request about what specifically concerned the district in Villanueva’s background.

“There are some things that don’t line up with what we think would be best for this school,” Curtis said, adding that village leaders are trying to paint the school district in a bad light. “I would say that the school is doing everything in its power to make sure anyone we bring into this district is the right person to put in this district. So we have not made any decisions to hire.”

Sandy Hershberger, mother of two Crestwood grads and grandparent of another, reached out to The Portager to express her concern about the lack of a district SRO. She said she wishes Curtis and the board would choose an acceptable SRO soon. 

“There’s no police presence or anything at the school,” she said. “Chardon was a small school, and look what happened in Chardon. It can happen here. It can happen anywhere. There’s crazy people, and I’m just scared for the community and for the children.”

Until an SRO is in place, Hershberger said she worries about response time until first responders arrive on scene.

Villanueva’s complaint against the PCSO 

Villanueva left the PCSO in 2024, but was not done with the agency. On Oct. 10, 2025, she filed a federal lawsuit in U.S. District Court, Northern District of Ohio, alleging that in 2023, when she was assigned to the county courthouse, she was denied requested accommodations for her pregnancy.

A July 10, 2023, document in Villanueva’s personnel file indicates that she was reassigned to second-shift duty at the county jail, effective Aug. 1, 2023, until such time as her medical leave for her pregnancy kicked in.

Her lawsuit, though, states that the PCSO denied her request for accommodations, forcing her to take FMLA leave in early August 2023. Her lawsuit cites discrimination against her on the basis of pregnancy and gender, and that she suffered financial harm due to that discrimination. The PCSO denied culpability in its Dec. 22, 2025, answer to her complaint, and the case remains open.