WEDNESDAY
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January 11, 2012
A division of
Vol. 27 No. 3
COMOX VALLEY RECORD Your community. Your newspaper. www.comoxvalleyrecord.com
Vanier principal’s‘murder’ investigated
RY ART GALLERY
Assignment part of CSI class Renée Andor Record Staff
In Place/Displaced is the next show at CVAG. ■ 13
RAIDERS TOPS
A pair of 30-plus point performances by Nick Tancon paced the Highland Raiders to victory at the G.P. Vanier Towhees annual Tucky Schellinck junior boys basketball tournament. It also earned Tancon MVP honours at the eight-team weekend event. Tancon poured in 30 points to lead the Raiders to a 50-36 win over the Mark Isfeld Ice in Saturday’s championship final, a game the Raiders never trailed.
... Complete story on ■ 25
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Imagine being a high school student/forensic investigator working on a case to discover who killed the principal. Well, that’s just what Grade 11 students at G.P. Vanier Secondary are doing for their English and chemistry classes. The students chose to take CSI 11, a combination of the two classes with a focus on crime scene investigation. “They’ll be taking evidence from the crime scene and piecing it together,” said English 11 teacher Megan Haut. “They can go and interview suspects, so that’s going to be part of the process of figuring out who’s actually responsible for the crime.” The students still learn all of the required skills in the regular courses, but the chemistry course centres around forensics and the English course centres around the mystery genre. Then, for their final project, students pretend they’re investigating who killed the principal using forensic evidence left at the scene.
They narrow down who the suspects are — other teachers at school — by questioning them based on the evidence collected. Then they film their own version of the popular television show CSI at the end of the semester later this month. Haut and chemistry 11 teacher Crystal Gaudry came up with the idea during a professional development day about a year ago. School administration liked it, and the course started in September. Students still have a full block for each of the courses; they just take both the classes together as a cohort, which Haut said has created a close-knit group. “I’ve seen a sense of collegiality or community from having the two blocks together, so the kids are very supportive of each other and they’ve gotten to know each other very well,” explained Haut. “There’s a really nice atmosphere in the class.” She also pointed out that because the students are enthusiastic about the topic they’re able to relate well to the subject matter.
... see TEACHERS ■ 2
VANIER CSI STUDENTS Vivian Nguyen, left, and Meredith Wicklund, break out the Bunsen burner to test for possible poison found in a teapot at the scene of the crime. PHOTO BY RENÉE ANDOR
Alarm company accused of harassing woman Renée Andor Record Staff
Shirley Werseen, 76, was harassed by a security company she signed up with but no longer wants services from, according to her son. The Courtenay resident suffers from early-onset dementia. Although she is still able to live on her own, her son Danny Mearns was put in charge of her financial affairs by a lawyer. According to Mearns, Werseen has been with Vigilant Security — a Canadian holding company of U.S.-based Pinnacle Security — for about a year. However, the alarms kept going off and scaring her, so she didn’t
want the system anymore. “She’s got kids in the neighbourhood that think it’s funny to come and rattle the door and the alarms go off and it scares the hell out of her, so she turned it off about four months ago,” explained Mearns. But even though she’s not actually using the home alarm system anymore, Mearns said the company demanded that his mother stay with them or pay $1,000 to get out of a contract that she signed. And he said they’ve been calling her repeatedly to tell her this. “They harass her, they phone her at like seven in the morning,” Mearns explained. “She’s losing sleep and she’s just all worried
about it.” Pinnacle Security Corporate Communications vice-president Stuart Dean said that he can’t tell how often, or what time collections calls are made, but that the account has been “delinquent” for over six months, and that the account could even have gone on to a collections company. Mearns said that Pinnacle Security is the company that called, and that he wants a copy of the agreement before paying the $1,000. He said his mother’s memory is failing and she doesn’t remember where she put her copy of the contract — or even whether or not she actually signed one. Dean said Werseen did sign a
contract, and completed a ‘welcome call’ with a customer service representative. “Our welcome call is very thorough to verify terms and conditions of an agreement,” he added. “We actually record those conversations as part of our quality standards.” But, between his mother, his sister and himself, Mearns said the family has repeatedly asked the company for a copy of the agreement to be sent out for the last few months, and they have not yet received one. Dean said proof of the contract will be sent out to Mearns. He also said that if Werseen is admitted to a care facility, the
... see WARNING ■ 2
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