Forensics Identification Night

Post date: Dec 6, 2012 4:44:54 AM

This October was our chapter’s fingerprinting night. The event was a joint fundraiser for both the PVHS Forensics Club and our PVHS Biotechnology HOSA, in which parents could pay five dollars to get a child identification kit. The kit included a set of their child’s fingerprints and photo identification, taken by the Forensics Club, and a Buccal mouth swab with their child’s DNA, administered by HOSA. For the Buccal swab we had a station set up for with two people disinfected and standing by to take people’s cheek cells. One person was designated to swab the child’s mouth, and once swabbed they would quickly hand it to the person standing by who snapped the stick in half and put the swab into a sterile conical tube. Precision and speed was key to avoid contamination.

When four o’clock rolled around HOSA and Forensics Club had our stations set up and prepared to handle guests. The minutes rolled by slowly, and that quickly lapsed into an hour gone that the volunteers waited patiently for a parent to arrive. To both clubs shock, we were soon informed that a mistake had been made: the information about the night’s event not been distributed by the Paradise Valley District to the elementary schools. No one was aware that the event was happening. But it was not all for naught; right as we had begun to pack up a parent of a volunteer and member of HOSA arrived with three children, and soon after a teacher’s family arrived with two more. Charles Chesser, Tristan Neal, and Matthew Pandelakis had the opportunity to collect the DNA. The experience will be shared among a much larger group of HOSA volunteers this January, when we will repeat the event. This time, however, we will make sure that the district is informed and are expecting a much better outcome.