This High School Forensics Final Exam Is A Total Crime Scene

NEW ROCHELLE, NY — There were eight separate crime scenes in one Westchester woods this week, but an army of CSIs from nearby New Rochelle High School descended on the park to carefully process evidence.

On Tuesday, more than 200 students had to solve a "crime" in order to pass their Forensic Science classes, with the final exam taking place at the mock crime scenes in the Nature Study Woods.

"The students aren't actually expected to solve the crime — that's a whole different field of study," Forensic Science teacher Scott Rubins told Patch. "We spend the whole school year working towards this day. [Students] are graded on how they process the scene not on solving a mystery. This is their chance to show they understood. They get to do the real work of real crime scene investigators making what they do in class look authentic."

For the most exciting final of the school year, 40 students at a time posed as forensic investigators, photographers and evidence technicians to examine the mock crime scene.

Uniformed members of the New Rochelle Police Department acted as first responders at the crime scene and assisted teachers in evaluation of the students' work.

The officers who arrived on the scene before the juniors and seniors, gave each group a quick "sit-rep" and declared that the crime scene was secure.

Paying careful attention to protocols and making certain not to overlook a single detail, the students, each with their own duties to perform, began to process the murder scene for evidence.

"We were nervous for a little bit but when we started doing our thing, we got into motion and it was good," junior Jacob Wong-Dunn confessed to school administrators. "We got our rhythm. We just kept pushing each other and saying, 'We got this.'"

The previously chatty teens get down to business, coordinating with classmates with brief professional communication and care to protect the chain of custody of any evidence they found.

"I think we missed something over here."

"What do you see?"

"I don't know, but I need an evidence marker and a ruler."

Rubins said the next step for the students will be working in the laboratory to evaluate and examine the evidence that they collected before presenting their cases in the classroom, courtroom-style, with challenges to their findings. Presentations will include their crime scene and evidence photos, the rationale for how they processed their scenes, their laboratory request documents, and their conclusions.

Several former students came back to assist on Tuesday, including some who currently work in law enforcement, including Putnam County Sheriff Deputy Victoria Crimmins.

"She's the one running the show," Rubins said of his former student. "When we're done, we'll organize and pack all this away for next year. She won't let me touch anything."

It's been 24 years since Rubins first took on the massive undertaking that has made his class a favorite among students, despite the challenging nature of the curriculum. As he led city and school officials, including New Rochelle Mayor Yadira Ramos-Herbert, though grisly scenes of murder and mayhem, he pointed to the body in the drainpipe and seniors clad in CSI shirts, students carefully controlling access to areas behind crime scene tape and even a car brought in to serve as an abandoned car in the woods.

"We're out here every year, rain or shine — I definitely prefer this," Rubins said referring to the perfect late-May weather. "But, it's like I tell my students, you can control the crime scene, but you can't control the elements."