From rookie to role model: WHS mock CSI unit creates a full circle return to the scene

By Lorraine Glowczak

“When will I ever use this after high school?” It’s a question that teachers have heard echo through classrooms for decades. From math equations to lab reports to literary analysis, students often wonder how today’s lessons will matter in their future. But what happens when learning moves beyond the classroom and into the real world – where students are exposed to the ways math, science, and English are not only useful, but needed to succeed?

Corporal Hailey Penney, a 2022 Windham High graduate now
serving in the Maine Correctional Center's Special
Investigations and Intelligence Unit, returned to WHS as 
an expert in the annual Mock CSI event, a career-connected
curriculum she participated in as a student four years ago. 
She helped student 'rookie' detectives refine their\
questioning skills and share how others can follow a 
similar career path. SUBMITTED PHOTO  

To help students see the real-world value of their learning, Windham High School teachers John Ziegler (math) and Adrianne Shetenhelm (alternative education English) launched a hands-on interdisciplinary unit in 2016. The collaboration brought their classes together for a mock CSI experience that challenged students to apply math, writing and critical-thinking skills to a simulated crime scene.

“As the project proved its impact over the next few years, the partnership grew to include Lauren Ruffner’s science, along with real-world support from the Windham Police Department and the Windham Fire Department, transforming the unit into a fully immersive learning experience,” Shetenhelm said.

This collaborative interdisciplinary unit continued again this year on Thursday, April 30 with the “crime” occurring in the parking lot at the Windham Veterans Center. But what made this year’s unit so special was a meaningful turning point when one of Shetenhelm’s former students, Hailey Penney, a 2022 WHS graduate, joined in on the collaboration.

“A full-circle moment for me this year was having Hailey back on the scene, four years after she was in the unit as a student; she came back as an expert,” Shetenhelm said.

Penney, now Corporal Penney, works for the Maine Correctional Center in the Special Investigations and Intelligence Unit. She was invited to join mock CSI day to help the “rookie" detectives and evidence techs in refining their questioning techniques. She talked about her career pathway and how other students may follow a similar path if they are interested.

“After contacting the Maine Correctional Center to see if we could have someone speak to our students, it was clear that Hailey would be the perfect choice,” Shetenhelm said. “Hailey's superiors spoke so highly of her capabilities and her speedy progression in the field. I was not surprised, and I am so proud of her.”

Corporal Penney said that she doesn’t remember being interested in law enforcement before the mock CSI event. “I believe this is because of my prior lack of knowledge as to what law enforcement officers do. Being introduced to WPD Detective Andrews and Sergeant Fournier and learning about what they do in their careers significantly changed my perception. I was inspired to make a difference.”

She added that being a part of a “real-life crime scene”, gathering information and interviewing witnesses and suspects sparked an interest in her that she didn’t know she had. “Before this, I remember feeling as if I had not found my passion yet. I am very grateful that I was involved with this event because I’m not sure if I would have considered a career in corrections or law enforcement otherwise.”

Being an expert now, Corporal Penney said that she enjoyed talking with the students about her story and how her career became a passion.

“There were so many students who were engaged in this event and open to speaking with me. I gave two students Maine Department of Corrections challenge coins because I was very impressed with their thought processes and efforts that went into this year’s mock CSI unit,” she said. “My hope is that students were able to take something away from our conversations and have a better understanding of law enforcement, like I did when I experienced the CSI event.”

It’s Shetenhelm and Ziegler’s hope for their students too. As a result, they plan to continue this annual career connected learning as long as they can. To do so, they will begin to write a new “crime” this summer.

“Each year, we write a new narrative over the summer and recruit staff volunteers and actors in the fall,” Shetenhelm said. “We begin working with the WPD and other experts to ensure the story is realistic. By the fourth quarter, the unit begins—preparing English students to investigate and interview witnesses while math and science students learn to analyze evidence. On the day of the field trip, one question remains: Have we prepared them enough to connect the dots on their own, just as they must after graduation?”

Shetenhelm says that they hope to team teach with Corporal Penney again next year.

“I couldn't be prouder and more honored to be a part of her story and to be working alongside her,” Shetenhelm said. 

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. <