WVCJEA Conference

By Erika Westbrook
The West Virginia Criminal Justice Educators’ Association will hold its ninth annual WVCJEA Conference on campus Nov. 11 and 12. Students and advisors from different areas of West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania will participate in the event.

Highlighting the conference will be a mock crime scene, coordinated by Criminal Justice Organization students. With help from local law officials and instructors working as mentors, Criminal Justice students will acquire hands-on experience solving an alleged murder. In a series of interviews and basic crime scene investigating, students will determine and arrest suspects for arson, murder and kidnapping of a child. A mock bail hearing will also be part of the job experience.

The crime scene is only the first of a three-part job training session. A briefing session will follow up the crime scene, and a mock trial will take place in the spring.

Eastwood Fire Department, members of the Fire Investigation Team (FIT), members of the Certified Emergency Response Team (CERT), and detectives and deputies from the Wood County Sheriff’s Department are among the many helping with the program.

The mock crime scene will take place Friday at 4 p.m. A theater presentation of Death and the Maiden will conclude the evening’s events at 7 p.m.

Saturday’s events will begin with registration from 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. Panel and poster presentations are scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. and continue until 3 p.m., followed by awards. A business meeting will conclude the conference at 4 p.m.