Ms. Molly Grzesik traded her role as teacher for student when she participated in the Citizens Police Academy through the Lake Forest Police Department this past spring. 

The class gives participants an inside peek at what police do for the community and the different systems that are in place to keep our communities safe. Being an 11-week course that meets every Wed. for three hours, it seems like a long time; however, Grzesik said she missed it when it was over.

“11 weeks seems like a long time, and then you’re like, ‘but wait, now what am I going to do on my Wednesday nights?’” Grzesik said.

Grzesik is starting her twelfth year as a science teacher at LFHS: she has taught chemistry, biology, physics, material science, and criminalistics. In her criminalistics class, she teaches students how to carry out criminal investigations by showing them how to process physical evidence including fingerprints, blood, and DNA. Grzesik was drawn to the course not only because she wanted to gain more knowledge of the LFPD, but also because she saw it as a way to enhance her criminalistics class. 

“I had just started teaching criminalistics and [the course] just goes along with the curriculum really well,” Grzesik said. “I wanted to establish some good relationships with local law enforcement so that I could have some great guest speakers come in and talk to my students.”

Junior Piper Bennett said she really enjoyed when guest speakers came into her class this year. They would all come in with a slideshow and, at the end of their presentations, encourage students to ask questions. Bennett said she liked it because as more people participated the class would be more engaging. She recalled learning about a shooting that had happened by the Lake Forest Dunkin’ Donuts and that now, whenever she drives past, she thinks about it.

“I really liked having guest speakers [come in] because you can see from a real perspective of what the crimes are like in Lake Forest,” Bennett said.

While making connections with some potential guest speakers for criminalistics was a perk, there was a lot more that Grzesik gained from this experience. Specifically, she said she was surprised when she learned about all the different roles that the officers have. Officers with different specialties would come in each week and discuss what they do and what their positions entail.

In addition to this traditional lecture-style teaching format, the program offers participants opportunities for more interactive learning. These include both ride-alongs–where participants accompany officers on their patrols–and interactive exercises based on incidents the LFPD has encountered in the past. LFHS Resource Officer Mark Long explained that working through these real-life scenarios helps participants better understand the officers’ real-time decision-making process. 

“It really [provides] people [with a] perspective of what we go through on a call instead of just talking about it… Once you actually physically gone through it, you understand it from a different perspective,” Officer Long said.

Grzesik said she was glad to have had this experience and that everyone should do it.

“One of the most valuable outcomes was the relationships I built with several officers. As a criminalistics teacher, those connections are incredibly beneficial,” said Grzesik. “More broadly, the experience reinforced my belief that when people have the opportunity to see what others experience in their daily work, it helps build understanding and respect on all sides.”