Two familiar faces have stepped into roles as school resources officers at Buckeye Valley, putting a sheriff’s deputy at every building in the district.

School resource officers Erica Ferrell and Aaron Kamerer each have a tie to Buckeye Valley, and both said Thursday they are excited to be part East Elementary and Buckeye Valley Middle School, respectively.

For Ferrell, becoming an SRO at BV is a homecoming of sorts.

“I attended Buckeye Valley and my school resource office had a big impact from elementary all the way up to high school,” said Ferrell, who added she was working as a trooper with the Ohio State Highway Patrol when her School Resource Officer Fred Strawser reached out and asked if she’d be interested in becoming an SRO.

“I applied and I’ve loved it here ever since. Coming back to the schools I went to … it’s kind of nice to come back home,” she said.

Kamerer said he’s been coaching seventh and eighth grade boys baseball and football for 13 years, and he had to step away from coaching recently since his own children aged out.

“I wanted to keep working with that age group, so when these positions came open, I thought that’d be a good way to keep working with middle school kids,” Kamerer said. “I’m super happy to be here.”

Both officers are at the buildings every day and will give safety instructions to students at their schools throughout the year. Ferrell said starting next week, she’ll be teaching elementary students about herself, gun safety, bike safety and stranger danger. Kamerer said his lessons to middle school students will focus on gun safety, social media, sexting, drugs and alcohol, as well as vaping and tobacco.

Ferrell said she’s enjoyed the first three weeks of school.

“I like seeing the kids every day,” Ferrell said as she jokingly added the students are “finally starting to accept me.”

Ferrell and Kamerer said they are both happy to be able to create positive connections to students in the district.

“(I like) being able to interact with the kids,” Ferrell said. “Unfortunately, there are kids throughout any district that feel like they’ve had bad encounters (with law enforcement) because their parents have been through bad experiences, but this gives them another chance to see us in a different aspect. It gets them to interact with us on a different level. We’re not just coming out because something bad has happened.”

Kamerer said the district is “fortunate enough” to have an SRO at every building, and parents like that each building has a deputy.

“Parents come up to me and ask, ‘You’re here every day? That’s so awesome!’” Ferrell said. “We are in a community where we’re liked.”

Glenn Battishill can be reached at 740-413-0903.