Laval News Online - High schoolers CSI for a day

High schoolers become Crime Scene Investigators for a day
École secondaire Leblanc is setting for ‘Murder at the Arena’
Published June 2 , 2010
By Martin C. Barry • NEWSFIRST

Photo: Martin C. Barry
Teenaged crime scene investigators try to catch a “murderer” last Monday at
École secondaire Leblanc.

Nearly 35 secondary five students from École secondaire Leblanc in eastern Laval got a chance to be crime scene investigators last Monday when they took part in a simulated criminal investigation exercise organized by a Montreal-based company that is one of the leading providers of CSI technology to police forces around the globe.

Whodonit?
Murder at the Arena was the name of the scenario that was devised by staff at Forensic Technology to engage the interest of the students. In a lifesize variation on the board game Clue (“Col. Mustard did it with the candlestick in the ballroom”), Forensic Technology employees took on the roles of suspects. After spending part of the morning learning basic crime scene investigation methods, the students applied those scientific skills in the school lab to try and figure out who killed a fictional character.
While automated ballistics identification is Forensic Technology’s main expertise, the students also got a chance during the morning to conduct experiments in fingerprinting, chemical trace analysis, and examination of hair samples while tracking down Trotsky’s murderer. During the second half of the game during the afternoon, they interrogated the suspects. Since the crime they investigated was committed with a firearm, this called upon the students to use their newly-acquired ballistics expertise.

Helping dropouts
Other evidence to work with included tool marks left behind when a locker was forced open, human hairs, fibers found clinging to the gun, fingerprints and a sample of handwriting. Because the dropout rate in Quebec has become so problematic, Forensic Technology has been partnering for several years with “at risk” schools to stage its CSI exercise. In so doing, the company hopes to promote the benefits of not dropping out. “We want to show them there are some interesting options that can be pursued in CEGEP,” said Elizabeth Lecavalier, the company’s vice president for human resources, who took part in the simulation.
Participating in teams, the students could lose points if any of the evidence they were working with was damaged or lost. “This is how it works in real life,” said André Ménard, a media specialist with the company. “If you bring back damaged evidence your case is shot. We try to keep it as realistic as possible.” The success of the CSI television police drama series has spawned much speculation on the accuracy of its depiction of crime scene investigation. According to Ménard, the televised CSI is reasonably close to reality, although the producers have altered the apperance of the investigative technology somewhat.

CSI how real?
“The most fictional part about it is the timeline,” he said. “A lot of the science they’re using is very real. In fact, the systems that we produce are all on the sets of CSI. They try to keep it as realistic as possible. But what’s fictional about it is that you don’t get your guy after 10 minutes or one hour. This process can often take several months, sometimes even years when the judicial process is involved.” While the investigative tools depicted on CSI are real for the most part, it seems that the program’s producers have dressed some of them up with visual interfaces to make them more appealing to television audiences.

Teenaged crime scene investigators try to catch a “murderer” last Monday at École secondaire Leblanc.