Two North Point Students Take Home First and Second Place Wins
They had been training for this day for months. Fifteen students from the Criminal Justice program at North Point High School competed against students from criminal justice programs in St. Mary’s County and Calvert County at the SkillsUSA Regional competition held Feb. 2 at the Forrest Career and Technology Center in Leonardtown. The competition was divided into two categories: criminal justice and crime scene investigations.
During the criminal justice portion, students were challenged on an individual basis and were scored on how well they handled calls for a suspicious vehicle, a robbery and dealing with an emotionally troubled person. Ashton Brown, a junior at North Point took home first place and Tiffany Butler, a senior, came in second. The other 3 competitors in this portion of the competition were Carly Ford, Justin Craft, and Gill-Jan Eleazar.
Cpl. Rhett Calloway of the Charles County Sheriff’s Office who heads the Criminal Justice program at North Point trained the students who took part in the criminal justice competition. “I’m very proud of all of our students who participated. They worked so hard to prepare for this competition and when it came time to showcase their talents, their hard work paid off.”
The Crime Scene Investigation portion of the competition consisted of three, three-man teams who were scored on their ability to process a crime scene. Jessica Sweeney, Elizabeth Burgess, Bethany Bowman, Alexis Washington, Alexis Gibson, Raquel Swann, Monica Garza, Stephanie McCarter, and Peter Hartmann sketched and photographed the crime scene, collected evidence, dusted for fingerprints, fingerprinted suspects and analyzed the prints for a match.
Cpl. Chrissy Gilroy of the CCSO prepared students for this part of the competition. “Handling a crime scene in the real world is much different than you see on television. I was really impressed with how well our students did because it’s quite a challenge.”
“The students in our Criminal Justice program never cease to amaze me,” said Sheriff Rex Coffey. “They work hard, they study hard and when it comes time to demonstrate what they’ve learned, they perform well under pressure. They’re a talented group of teens taught by a very talented group of instructors.”
According to its website, SkillsUSA is a partnership of students, teachers and industry representatives working together to ensure America has a skilled workforce. It is a national non-profit organization serving teachers and high school and college students who are preparing for various careers including law enforcement.
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