WHS students undertake mock crime investigation with police

By Jolene Bailey

Windham High School offers a plethora of options for students to overcome struggles they might face outside of high school and into adulthood. For many, this includes attending college fairs and shadowing jobs; finding out their path that will unfold. One activity Windham High School does each year is a mock crime scene. Although the classes involved and scenario changes every year, the exercise focuses on English, math, and science.

Students at Windham High School work with investigators
from the Windham Police Department as part of an exercise
to solve a mock crime scene on schools grounds on May 3.
SUBMITTED PHOTO  

On Wednesday, May 3, students and members of the Windham law enforcement community interacted during a unique Crime Scene Investigation exercise on the school campus.

“The crime that was alleged was a motor-vehicle involved murder in which two neighbors had a problem with each other and shortly after a verbal dispute, one of the neighbors ran the other one off the road causing that driver to be ejected from the vehicle and subsequently pass away from injuries,” said Jason Burke, a Windham Police Department officer who was involved in the actual crime scene.

During the exercise, every WHS student has a role to play in solving the supposed crime. English students were the “detectives,” while math and science students were the “evidence techs” whose duty was to calculate details and handle the evidence.

“The key aspect of all this work is that both sides of the investigation must work together to solve the crime. Both roles needed each other to understand the complete experience,” said WHS teacher Adrianne Shetenhelm.

The exercise not only gave students insight into what it is like to solve a crime, but it also taught participants academic skills that they will need in and outside of a classroom environment.

“I was so proud to see my students, even often quiet ones who may not respond to a lesson within the classroom, engage with police officers, members of the community, and ask hard questions and work with peers to solve the crime. Many demonstrated clever problem-solving and leadership skills,” said Shetenhelm.

The planning process for the exercise started all the way back in September with the officers tasked with setting up the mock crime scene working collaboratively with the educators at Windham High. Each year there is a different mock crime at the school, with different lessons and story plots, and different actors participating, and this was the fourth year that the mock crime scene exercise was staged at the school. Expectations are that students will understand how the different pieces of evidence collected come together to show what happened, which tests are reliable, and which ones have a high possibility of error.

“We teachers work with the police to write this original scenario, and we work hard to manufacture the evidence students find on the scene, but we have to trust that our students will connect all the dots,” Shetenhelm said. “It's like designing a play but in addition to setting the stage, writing the script, and creating the props, you then just have to prepare and then trust that the students are not a passive audience but active participants.”

Teachers normally see students in a classroom setting five out of seven days a week and within this given time, teachers and students are able to create relationships and bonds. But outside of a teacher’s point of view, police officers aren’t as interactive with the students’ daily academic life.

"This event is a lot of fun to participate in. Not only do we get to help with the background preparation and planning, but we also are given the opportunity to teach in the classroom. On the day of the event the scenario brings all of the parts and pieces together to give the students an example of how academic knowledge is put to use in the real world,” said Burke.

All around us are skills for us to pick up upon, Burke said, and the mock crime scene investigation presents just such an opportunity. <

‘Wreaths Across America’ a transformative experience for WPD officers

By Lorraine Glowczak

After five years volunteering as police escorts for the Wreaths Across America (WAA) caravan, providing safety at intersections as it traveled through Maine, Windham Police Department (WPD) Detective Eugene Gallant and Sergeant Jason Burke received an opportunity this year to participate in the entire six-day convoy that travels to Arlington National Cemetery outside Washington D.C.

Windham Police DCetective Eugene Gallant and Sgt. Jason
Burke helped to lay 247,000 wreaths on the graves of fallen
soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery as part of the annual
Wreaths Across America event. They experienced many
meaningful moments on the trip and say it made a
significant impact on their lives. SUBMITTED PHOTO   

In its 30th year, this annual 730-mile one-way procession begins at the Worcester Wreath Company in Harrington, Maine where the wreaths are made and then delivered the first week of December. Upon arrival, Det. Gallant and Sgt. Burke helped to lay 247,000 wreaths, transported in 18 semi-trailers, onto the graves of fallen soldiers. They both agreed that laying wreaths and saluting fallen soldiers were very humbling experiences.

“Gene and I thought it was a great way to honor our soldiers and the people who sacrificed their lives for our country and the freedoms offered here,” Burke said. “Since we began escorting for WAA, it became a bucket list item for us to travel to Arlington to show our appreciation, so when the opportunity arose to be a part of this convoy, we jumped at it.”

Gallant and Burke also participated in wreath-laying ceremonies at the William H. Taft Memorial, JFK Memorial, RFK Memorial, USS Maine Memorial, the 9/11 Pentagon Memorial, and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. They also paid their respects by rendering a salute at the gravesite of fellow WPD officer Justin Hudnor’s grandfather, a World War II veteran. Although there were many significant events that took place during the six-day period, the sergeant and detective shared two meaningful experiences.

“During the trip to D.C., we made many stops along the way at various New England towns,” Gallant said. “At one stop at a War Memorial in New Jersey, a woman approached us and asked us to transport a stone to Arlington. The stone had the name of her son engraved on it. He was stationed in Afghanistan and was on a convoy detail when he was hit and killed by an IED [improvised explosive device]. She asked us to take him. One of the truckers [delivering the wreaths] was a veteran who had a tour in Afghanistan and asked if he could take her son to D.C. with him. Of course, we gave the stone to the trucker to travel with a fellow comrade. This is an experience that Jason and I definitely did not expect. This made a great impact on us.”

Another significant experience happened while placing 184 wreaths at the 9/11 Pentagon Memorial, a memorial for those who did not survive the 9/11/2001 terrorist attacks. Burke said that a Pentagon Police lieutenant explained the monument and what the layout meant.

“The direction of the benches signifies the direction the plane flew into the building,” Burke said. “The names on the benches are laid out so that if you are looking toward the sky, it represents those on the plane. The names on the ground are of people in the building. It is a very powerful and meaningful memorial that Gene and I would encourage all to attend.”

The WAA tradition began in 1992 when the Worcester Wreath Company had a surplus of 5,000 wreaths, and the owner of the company, Morrill Worcester recalled a powerful experience of his own. He knew immediately what he had to do with the extra wreaths.

The story began when Worcester was 12 years old in 1963. He won a trip to Washington D.C. while working as a delivery boy for the Bangor Daily News.

“His first trip to our nation’s capital was one he would never forget, and Arlington National Cemetery made an especially indelible impression on him,” the Worcester Wreath Company website stated. “This experience followed him throughout his life and successful career, reminding him that his good fortune was due, in large part, to the values of this nation and the veterans who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country.”

So, in 1992, Worcester remembered his boyhood experience at Arlington, and he realized he had an opportunity to honor our country’s veterans. “With the aid of Maine Senator Olympia Snowe, arrangements were made for the wreaths to be placed at Arlington in one of the older sections of the cemetery that had been receiving fewer visitors with each passing year.”

The tradition continued, and in 2007, Wreaths Across America became a non-profit organization.

Although U.S. veterans are honored and remembered on Memorial Day and Veterans Day, Sgt. Gallant and Det. Burke understand more profoundly the appreciation the veterans deserve daily.

“We like to encourage others to honor and remember those who have sacrificed so that we may have the freedom to live the life of our dreams,” Gallant said.

For more information about the Worcester Wreath Company, one can peruse the company’s website at www.worcesterwreath.com. To learn more about Wreath Across America go to www.wreathsacrossamerica.org.<