A Blue Valley Southwest student walks down the hall just before seventh hour with a schedule in one hand and a pair of plastic examination gloves in the other. According to their schedule, the final class of the day is forensics, where this student hopes to learn skills demonstrated constantly on procedural police dramas. Unfortunately, when the student opens the door, they are dismayed at what they see. Instead of walking into a room full of tomorrow’s forensic scientists, they have just walked into a room full of students tirelessly combing the internet for free online scripts, and obscure sources for the speeches that will hopefully qualify them to the State tournament in Topeka.
It suddenly becomes evident that forensics is no science class.
Sitting opposite the debate season, forensics is home to one of Blue Valley Southwest’s smallest teams. Every Saturday, forensicators compete at area schools in a variety of different speech and acting events. On the speech side of the coin, the events are informative speaking and oration, an event where the competitor identifies a problem in the world and how they suggest to solve it. As far as acting goes, competitors have more options including the reading of poetry or prose, and solo acting.
“My favorite event is poetry,” said sophomore Victoria Clark. “It’s fun creating different voices and reminds me of reading a children’s book.”
Poetry is a non-memorized event, but memorized acting events also tend to be popular with students.
“DI [Dramatic Interpretive Acting] is my favorite because there is actual acting,” said junior Michelle Cowles.“There’s no popping in and out of different characters, so the piece is more cohesive.”
Performances aren’t the only enjoyable parts of being involved in forensics. Students also get to have a good time while competing at tournaments.
Cowles said that the atmosphere at a tournament is all dependant on what hallway you are in while waiting to go deliver a performance to a judge.
“The DI hallway is always pretty fun and relaxed,” she said. “Unlike the pieces people perform.”
According to Cowles and Clark, tournaments do have a few drawbacks.
“There’s a lot of waiting,” Clark said. “But that’s alright because you get to be with friends, doing something that you enjoy.”
Even though forensics is generally laid-back and enjoyable, there still aren’t many people on the team, possibly because other students don’t know what it is.
“A lot of people ask me if we study dead bodies,” Clark said. “But I think people would actually enjoy forensics if they knew what it was.”
So, for students with a competitive nature and three or four free Saturdays during second semester, forensics could be a class worth checking out. Just remember not to bring the examination gloves.
