James Rocco’s 4th period Forensics 2 class is up to their knees in blood as they are now a part of a mock crime scene investigation.

    It all started on the first day of the school year as students found their seats, only to hear Rocco say that it is going to be a different year, and that students will now have to take tests and do worksheets. However, students in his class, like senior Cole Casey, knew that something had to be up.

    “It’s not like Rocco to ever do tests so I knew something had to be happening,” Casey said.

   Soon after, Penn Township Police Officer Myers came through the door reciting a dialogue practiced between he and Rocco on how one of the janitors had gone missing and that the principals had disappeared.

   Students were then taken down to the boiler room which had a full mock crime scene set up. The crime scene was completely decorated with a male actor that appeared as the murder victim with blood over his head. Paramedics and more police officers surrounded the scene, and white powder was used to replicate drugs.

    Rocco said he thinks this style is incredibly important to teaching students.

    “What we are trying to do is give students life-like experiences to really engage them in the moment and with what they are working on,” Rocco said.

    The class now is working on different techniques on how to handle a crime scene. They are learning how to collect evidence and interview suspects.

    “We are planning to work with the legal court systems and have a real trial to go along with this crime. We have acquired people outside of P-T to be our jury and will even have a real judge,” said Rocco.

     The class is supposed to carry on this new learning technique as long as the trial takes and until they get a definite answer of who did it.