Elementary School Program Gives Students CSI Experience

There’s an elementary school in Florida that’s giving its students real-world CSI experience. An elementary school! One 14-year old, Holly Wich, is taking serious advantage of the program to help herself out.

Each Thursday during the school year, Holly left classes at Stuart Middle School a few hours early to work with detectives in the forensics department at the Martin County Sheriff’s Office as part of the school’s Career Apprenticeship Program.

Maybe even more interesting and a welcoming thought is that she does realize that the real-world is not what’s really portrayed on TV. And, let’s be honest folks, if what was on TV was reality, nobody would watch it. I’ve got enough "reality" in my life, I watch TV to escape and live below or above reality just a little bit.

And from her experiences, Holly knows what television shows like CSI and Law & Order portray is far from reality.

She’s on her way, that’s for sure:

"This is definitely what I want to do in the future," she said. "I feel extremely lucky that I can have this chance to do it. Not many people have experiences like this." And when Holly mentions her part-time job to others, she often gets some shocked reactions. "A lot of my friends are like, ‘Wow, that’s really awesome,’ " Holly said.

Part-time job? Aren’t there labor laws in Florida? I thought you had to be older than 14-years old to be employed. Maybe it’s because it’s not that many hours and that’s how she can continue doing it. Either way, congratulations Holly.