In-house field trip brings BCHS students behind-the-scenes of murder mystery
October 5, 2010
Last Friday morning, students in BCHS English teacher Elizabeth Anderson’s Detective Fiction class went behind the scenes of a real-life murder mystery from the comfort of Room D122.
Retired Portland, Maine deputy police chief and author Joseph Loughlin talked to the class from Maine for more than an hour via teleconference about the rigors of police work and writing about crime.
Loughlin is the co-author of the true-life crime book “Finding Amy,” about the 2001 disappearance of 25-year-old Portland woman Amy St. Laurent.
Students had previously read excerpts from the book to prepare for the “in-house field trip.” Loughlin explained to them the department’s thinking and its action as the investigation unfolded in the early hours after Ms. St. Laurent’s disappearance.
He impressed upon them the difficulty involved with police work, as officers are often looking into multiple aspects of several investigations at once — not solving cases in an afternoon as they might on television shows like CSI.
“The reality of policework is vastly different from TV, from CSI and other crime shows,” Loughlin said. “What’s accomplished in an hour is just absurd, but this is literally people’s frame of reference nationwide.”
One of the reasons he wrote the book was to more accurately portray police work and the emotional toll of the job. Loughlin said he also wanted to show the resilience of St. Laurent’s family and to reinforce the importance of personal safety among young women and their families.
His presentation also included basic crime scene management, a topic covered in the Detective Fiction course. The elective combines exploration of the literary genre of detective fiction, both fiction and non-fiction, with forensic science. Students in the class practice various aspects of forensic science such as evidence collection and fingerprint analysis, as well as language art skills such as vocabulary and analytical and technical writing.
The videoconferencing equipment and support was provided by the district’s Technology Department, known as Bethlehem Educational Technology Services, and is available to all BC teachers.
Following the October 1 videoconference, students in Ms. Anderson’s class were going to be writing about Loughlin’s presentation and discussing their responses in class.