Denison High "detectives" (from left) Joey Wagner, Christa Laborde and Drew Kirshman work a mock crime scene.

Steve Cherry, criminal justice instructor at Denison (Texas) High School, jumped at the chance to teach a forensics class, but soon learned that a lot had changed since the former police officer started his career in 1972.

To close the gap, he took a weeklong crime scene technology course at Sirchie Fingerprint Laboratories Inc., based in Youngsville, N.C.

The class covered advanced fingerprint identification; tire, footprint and tool mark casting; racial identification, narcotics identification, reflective ultraviolet imaging systems, and crime scene sketching and photography. The training was capped off with a mock crime scene investigation.

Cherry says, “My lesson plans have grown to include demonstrations of the technology that I could only discuss or show videos of before I went to North Carolina.”

Sackett Tech students Lisa Kroeger (center) and Tracy Domago spread holiday cheer.

When SkillsUSA members at Howard G. Sackett Technical Center in Glenfield, N.Y., learned that folks at a local nursing home didn’t receive many gifts or visits during the holidays, they kicked into angel mode. The residents put their holiday wishes on an “angel tree” and the students fulfilled them.

The project involved nearly 170 students in the multisection chapter and concluded with a group gift-giving visit. According to advisor Katrina Fiorenza, the students were treated to a bowling/pizza party for their hard work.