Joyce Ferrell in “Right Place at Right Time”

Her six year old son Brayden calls her a hero, but Joyce Ferrell doesn’t necessarily see herself that way. She’s just glad to have been in the right place at the right time Friday afternoon when a pre-kindergarten student from Smithville Elementary walked away from school without anyone knowing he was gone.
The child, four year old Kameron Luther, was in his pre-kindergarten classroom when he slipped away during the students nap time. According to principal, Dr. Bill Tanner, the child’s teacher had gone to the restroom and was out of the classroom at the time, and the educational assistant, who was in the room, didn’t see the child leave apparently because the lights were out and the room was dark.
The little boy had already apparently crossed Bryant Street and was near the Region’s Bank branch ATM location when Ferrell drove by and spotted the child. In an interview with WJLE, Ferrell said she immediately stopped to talk with the boy, sensing something was wrong. “I asked him where his mommy was and he just shrugged his shoulders. He was just dressed in jeans and a shirt. He had on no jacket and of course it was cold outside. I asked him if he was in school and he told me no. I asked him his name and he said it was Kameron Luther and he was four years old. I just thought I had to get him back to his parents, so I put Kameron in my vehicle. I asked Kameron if he knew where he lived and he told me yes. As we were going down the road he pointed to where he lived but to me it just didn’t look like it (where he lived) because it was like a factory of some sort with a storage building. So I told Kameron that we were going to the police station and he got excited. He said “Am I going to meet a real policeman?” I said yes.”
After meeting with the police, Ferrell said she took Kameron back to school where Mr. Tanner was waiting.
Ferrell said she received a call from Kameron’s mother Friday evening, thanking her for “saving my son”. When asked if she felt like a hero, Ferrell said “I don’t know, I just felt in my heart that I was doing the right thing. I was just in the right place at the right time.”