Triton’s True Crime class went from listening to a famous podcast to being featured on it earlier this month after sending a series of compelling letters to the authors of the podcast. The students’ thoughtful questions impressed KT Studios producers, who invited the class to have their very own episode.
At the beginning of the school year, Ms.Erin Dempsey’s True Crime class started studying their very first murder case. The class started investigating the Idaho Massacre case, a tragic scene where four students from the University of Idaho were attacked in their sleep, which led to their death.
The class studied this case for three weeks doing various assignments and listening to a few podcasts that Dempsey assigned. Then she gave one particular assignment that would lead to them getting on to a famous podcast, “The Idaho Massacre” by KT Studios. Dempsey had them write letters to the podcast they were listening to except no one was expecting the studio to write back. After a few weeks of waiting, Dempsey got an unexpected email back from KT Studios. She was very excited and told her class the amazing news that they would get to interview the famous True crime podcast, KT Studios over Zoom.
To prepare for the interview, the class dove deeper into the Idaho murders case. Dempsey also introduced another podcast, Murder 101, which features a high school class solving a cold case. Listening to this helped the students understand concepts like profiling and victimology, which played a role in shaping their questions for the interview.
Wednesday November 13th, the class finally connected with Stephanie Lydecker, from KT Studios over Zoom. While Mrs.Dempsey was nervous about having to lead the conversation during the podcast, she realized quickly she didn’t have to.
“I was pleasantly surprised that you guys carried on the discussion and were enthusiastic about asking questions,” Dempsey said. The True Crime students led the conversation, asking insightful questions about the case, and they even built a genuine conversation with Lydecker.
For the students in the True Crime class, it wasn’t just about asking questions, it was more about teaming up to dig deep into the Idaho murder case. Together, the class worked to form theories, analyze the details, and craft important questions that would make for a good interview.
“I was a little nervous preparing for the podcast,” said True Crime student Josh Hersey.I have never been on a podcast before, but me and (fellow student) Gavin Marengi did some research beforehand to make sure we were prepared.”
The podcast isn’t just fun; it was inspiring. Dempsey also hopes that by people listening to the KT Studios podcast episode it might inspire
other schools to take similar risks in pursuit of learning about topics for which they are interested in.
“I hope it inspires other classes and students to focus on something they’re passionate about, take a chance, and reach out to learn more- it’s amazing what can come from that,” said Dempsey.
Triton’s True Crime class proved that with teamwork, curiosity, and a bit of bravery, students can pull off some pretty remarkable things, like getting featured on a podcast. This unique elective offers students the chance to dive into real world crime cases, and I and the rest of the class recommend you take it if you can.
“You should 100% take this class if you have the chance, it’s very interesting and is taught by a great teacher,” said Josh Penney.
