Wilson teachers Kris Kohlmeier and Bob Kiel and former Wilson teacher Barbara Harris came up with the program about 15 years ago. The three teachers even published a book in 1999 devoted to the program.
Now, the program is run by Kohlmeier, who teaches history; Kiel, who teaches science; and English teachers Jolie Augustine and Jennifer Lopez.
“What it’s been doing is tying in English, science and history,” Augustine said.
This year’s Crime Scene Investigation exercise began on Jan. 7, when eighth-graders at Wilson were introduced to a mock crime scene in the school’s library. There had been an early-morning theft, the teachers told students, and a collection of baseball cards as well as antique dolls valued at about $3,000 had been stolen from a glass display case. Three fictitious students — Anderson, Berry and Chambers — were the suspects.
In Kiel’s science class, the students collected evidence from the crime scene, including fingerprints and footprints, and analyzed them to see if they matched those of the suspects.
“We are taking science skills and turning them into police investigative forensic skills,” Kiel said.
In Kohlmeier’s class, they learned about the Bill of Rights and the rights of the criminally accused. And in the English classes, the students did writing exercises related to the mock crime, like drafting questions for the lawyers to ask during the trial and composing news articles about the incident, Augustine said.
“I think the overall goal is to get the kids involved in something that’s sort of real-life,” Kohlmeier said.
Presiding Judge Arthur Rutledge, a retired trial attorney who volunteered for the job, opened the three-day trial on Tuesday.
Each side delivered their opening statements to the assembled seventh-graders who were acting as impartial jurors.
“Understand that just because they are accused doesn’t make them guilty,” 13-year-old defense attorney Robert Gabrielyan said in his opening statement.
The prosecution then called to the stand students acting as the police officers who responded to the theft, and the fictitious school librarian and assistant principal who were in the library the morning of the incident.
Mary Manukyan, 13, said she liked the real-world components of the investigation, like dusting for fingerprints.
“I like that it gives us a glimpse into the adult world,” she said.
On Wednesday, the defense will state its case, and on Thursday, the jury will reach its verdict, Kohlmeier said.
“It’s wide open,” Kohlmeier said.
“It all comes down to what the jury decides on Thursday.”
