When Yowell Elementary School first opened its doors in 2008, a first grader named Kameron Buckhanan walked through them as one of Yowell’s very first Stallions.

Eighteen years later, he’s walking those same halls again, this time wearing a badge.

Deputy Kameron Buckhanan, affectionately known to our students as Deputy Kam, has found his way back home to Yowell Elementary, serving as our School Resource Officer and bringing his story full circle.

Long before students greeted him with high-fives in the hallway or called out “Deputy Kam!” when they saw him, he was a Yowell student himself. As a first grader, Kam was taught by two educators who are still part of the Yowell family today, Mrs. Ward and Mrs. Nicholson. His Culpeper County Public Schools roots continued at A.G. Richardson Elementary, where Mrs. Bopp was one of his teachers.

Kam went on to become a proud 2020 graduate of Culpeper County High School, where he played football. After graduation, he attended Ferrum College before returning home to Culpeper and spending some time working in insurance.

But eventually, a different career called.

Kam entered law enforcement as a deputy in Orange County before returning to Culpeper in 2023. After spending time on patrol, he became a School Resource Officer. His role took him to several schools throughout the county before, as fate would have it, he landed right back where his CCPS story began...at Yowell Elementary School.

Today, Deputy Kam gets to see Yowell from an entirely different perspective. The halls that once led him to his first-grade classroom are now the halls he helps keep safe. The teachers who once watched him grow now get to watch him serve as a role model for a new generation of students.

When he’s not keeping our Stallions safe, Deputy Kam’s favorite role is being a husband and dad. He loves spending his free time with his wife and their children.

There is something pretty special about watching one of our former students come back to serve the community that helped raise him. Our current Stallions see Deputy Kam as the friendly face keeping watch over their school, but his story is also a wonderful reminder of something we tell our students every day:

You never know where your journey will take you, or when it might bring you right back home.

From first-grade Stallion to School Resource Officer, we couldn’t be happier that Deputy Kam’s journey brought him back to Yowell.