Requesting help for murder mystery (Questions about Highschools in America)

E.Anderson

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Greetings, fellow writers!

I am now on the verge of writing my first murder mystery! It's mostly just for fun, but who knows it might evolve into something more, anyways, I've got almost everything about the structure of the mystery pinned down: the suspects, motives, the method of murder, etc. The problem that I'm facing right now is just how the murderer did it, exactly, let me explain...

The murder takes place in a highschool in the United States--which I don't really have a good amount of knowledge on, if I had the chance to visit it would be a whole lot easier but since I can't, this may be the only alternative. There are some things that I need to know about it's structure, which is crucial to how the murderer commited the crime, so here are the questions, which will be subdivided into 3 series...

1. Let's say for 11th graders...How many periods does a student have in a day and how many breaks? And how long are the breaks between periods? And how long is lunch time? And can a student leave the cafeteria and freely roam the school during lunch?

2. If you are excused during class (let's say going to the bathroom), do you need a bathroom or hall pass or something?(I've seen this on TV before, not sure if it is true or not), if so and you show the hall monitor your pass will he really follow you everywhere you go? And how long can you stay out of the classroom without getting in trouble? (is there a determined amount of time for going to the bathroom?)

3. Last series of questions. I've heard that in America, some schools have their own pools. So how does their accessing work, exactly? Are they reserved only for the swim team? If no one is scheduled to use it, is it locked up, preventing anybody from getting inside? Is there any period during the day where the pool is left unattended? Is it possible for a student to reach the school's pool all alone? If so, when during the school day? And finally...(possibly the most important question), Would it be possible to hide something there? (per say, a bag of rocks) If so, where?

I appreciate the help. Please and thank you!
 

Enlightened

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I graduated high school in 1992. We had 6 periods/classes per day. We could take periods 1-6 or 2-7 (if you wanted to start later). There was a lunch hour and a brief (15 min mid-morning break). Breaks between periods were 5 mins, if memory serves me right. High school is from grades 9-12. Grades 11 and 12 can leave campus for lunch, or stay on campus. Most left. They could go anywhere on campus that is outside or inside the library, unless it was storming outside.

We needed a hall pass for bathroom breaks. There were narcs (paid adults doing part-time work) that caught kids without passes or kids sneaking off campus. They issued citations for Saturday school for bad breaks of rules (e.g. leaving campus without permission or trying to sneak back on campus). I believe they allowed 10 mins for bathroom breaks.

My high school had a swimming pool. There was a water polo and swim team that competed with other schools. Physical Education sometimes allowed swimming as exercise too. It was gated when not in use. Yes, it is possible for a student to reach the pool, but no one ever did. There is a changing room, but no lockers. Nowhere to hide anything, at least at my school.
 

cornflake

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Greetings, fellow writers!

I am now on the verge of writing my first murder mystery! It's mostly just for fun, but who knows it might evolve into something more, anyways, I've got almost everything about the structure of the mystery pinned down: the suspects, motives, the method of murder, etc. The problem that I'm facing right now is just how the murderer did it, exactly, let me explain...

The murder takes place in a highschool in the United States--which I don't really have a good amount of knowledge on, if I had the chance to visit it would be a whole lot easier but since I can't, this may be the only alternative. There are some things that I need to know about it's structure, which is crucial to how the murderer commited the crime, so here are the questions, which will be subdivided into 3 series...

There are several threads on h.s. info. As in all of them, this entirely depends on the location, the school, etc.

1. Let's say for 11th graders...How many periods does a student have in a day and how many breaks? And how long are the breaks between periods? And how long is lunch time? And can a student leave the cafeteria and freely roam the school during lunch?

Entirely depends on the school, the type of school, etc. My h.s. had seven-eight periods, one break for lunch, which was like 45 minutes iirc. Of course we could leave the cafeteria, but not the school

2. If you are excused during class (let's say going to the bathroom), do you need a bathroom or hall pass or something?(I've seen this on TV before, not sure if it is true or not), if so and you show the hall monitor your pass will he really follow you everywhere you go? And how long can you stay out of the classroom without getting in trouble? (is there a determined amount of time for going to the bathroom?)

We had no passes, no hall monitors. and depended on the teacher.

3. Last series of questions. I've heard that in America, some schools have their own pools. So how does their accessing work, exactly? Are they reserved only for the swim team? If no one is scheduled to use it, is it locked up, preventing anybody from getting inside? Is there any period during the day where the pool is left unattended? Is it possible for a student to reach the school's pool all alone? If so, when during the school day? And finally...(possibly the most important question), Would it be possible to hide something there? (per say, a bag of rocks) If so, where?

I appreciate the help. Please and thank you!

We didn't have a pool. We didn't even have a gym.
 

E.Anderson

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Thanks for the reply! It was very helpful! I have another question (I apologize if it may seem dumb), in America, per say for the natatorium (the indoor pool)--who stays with the keys to it? The swim team couch? Janitor...who?
 

E.Anderson

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Could you link me those threads (related to high school) or at least tell me where I can find them?
 

ReadWriteRachel

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I graduated high school in 2012, so my information might be more current than some. :)

1. Let's say for 11th graders...How many periods does a student have in a day and how many breaks? And how long are the breaks between periods? And how long is lunch time? And can a student leave the cafeteria and freely roam the school during lunch?

My school had six periods, beginning at 7:50am and ending at 2:30pm. We had a half hour for lunch and ten-minute breaks between classes to get from one building to the next (my school classrooms were divided into three buildings, not including the gym, aquatics center, sports fields, etc.). There were three different lunch periods, so your lunch break depended on your year in school and what class you had for your fourth period -- some people went to lunch before fourth period, some after. We also called periods "hours," e.g. third hour, fourth hour, etc. That meant that yes, students would be allowed in the halls during lunch, because some people were in class while others were at lunch. We also didn't have to eat in the cafeteria -- we could eat on the school grounds and courtyards. Some other schools in my city allowed students to leave the campus entirely for lunch, but mine didn't.

2. If you are excused during class (let's say going to the bathroom), do you need a bathroom or hall pass or something?(I've seen this on TV before, not sure if it is true or not), if so and you show the hall monitor your pass will he really follow you everywhere you go? And how long can you stay out of the classroom without getting in trouble? (is there a determined amount of time for going to the bathroom?)

Some teachers made you use a bathroom pass, and some didn't. It depended on the teacher. By 11th grade, I will say that most teachers had done away with passes because they trusted us to be responsible enough to actually go where we said we were going. We didn't have hall monitors, but if you looked suspicious and a passing teacher or faculty member saw you, they might stop you and ask why you were out of class. They probably wouldn't follow you, though. There wasn't a set number of minutes for going to the bathroom, but any longer than ten minutes and a teacher would probably send another student to the bathroom to check if you were in there and you were all right.

3. Last series of questions. I've heard that in America, some schools have their own pools. So how does their accessing work, exactly? Are they reserved only for the swim team? If no one is scheduled to use it, is it locked up, preventing anybody from getting inside? Is there any period during the day where the pool is left unattended? Is it possible for a student to reach the school's pool all alone? If so, when during the school day? And finally...(possibly the most important question), Would it be possible to hide something there? (per say, a bag of rocks) If so, where?

I went to a pretty big school, and a pretty well-known school, so this is a really biased answer. My school did have an indoor pool, and while I was there, they actually built a new indoor Olympic-regulation-size pool that was the only one in the state, so competitive teams from all across the state held meets there. So it was a really huge complex. Only coaches and maintenance staff (janitors, repairmen, etc.) would have been able to access it; it definitely wasn't open. I never got to go inside because they were really protective of it. The easiest time for me to sneak in, if I'd wanted to, would have been after school, because that's when swim practices were held, or on weekends when meets were going on. The doors would have been unlocked then. But if the pool wasn't being used, there wouldn't have been a way for me to get into the complex. I know that it was pretty big, though, and there were bleachers along the sides as well as a maze of locker rooms and practice areas, so there were plenty of places to hide something like a bag of rocks. An open locker might have worked, or under the back corner of a set of bleachers. There might have been a custodian's closet or two as well, but there's a chance these would have been locked. This all goes for the smaller, older pool and the new one they built later.

I appreciate the help. Please and thank you!

Hope this helps somewhat!
 
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Enlightened

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My high school had and still has an outdoor pool only.
 

cornflake

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Could you link me those threads (related to high school) or at least tell me where I can find them?

Use the google search function at the bottom of the page.

Where is this set? That matters a great deal.
 

E.Anderson

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Wow! Thanks so much! All of you! Now with the basis of school periods in mind, I think now all that's left is using my own brainpower to connect the dots and finally finish this mystery!
 

E.Anderson

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Hope this helps somewhat!

It did help a bunch (u have no idea), thanks! I have another question (Might be my dumbest question yet)...in your school at least, where did the Janitor store his keys? (to most of the places in the school)
 

GailD

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E.Anderson, you mentioned lunch break. If I'm not very mistaken, and I stand to be corrected here, a break is called a 'recess' in the U.S.

Just a thought.

Gail,
Who has learned the hard way that 'Mericans have their own, unique terminology for some stuff. :D
 

cornflake

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E.Anderson, you mentioned lunch break. If I'm not very mistaken, and I stand to be corrected here, a break is called a 'recess' in the U.S.

Just a thought.

Gail,
Who has learned the hard way that 'Mericans have their own, unique terminology for some stuff. :D

In my experience in 'merican schools, lunch and recess are two different things, and high schoolers sadly don't get recess. Recess -- at least in the NE as I know it, is the elementary school period wherein little kids run around the playground being jerks to one another, playing stuff, hanging off semi-dangerous equipment and using up energy that can drive teachers insane. It's also what gets taken away if you don't do stuff or were bad, like you don't get to go out to the playground for recess because you didn't finish your worksheets. High schoolers don't get recess. :(
 

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The janitor wears the keys on him at all times. Extra keys are kept in the school office locked in a desk.
 

Zan75

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As mentioned before, what your fictional town is like will really affect the school setting. Due to the school shootings things have changed a lot in my district since I went to high school in the 90's.
To name a few - All doors are locked now, entrances have shatter proof glass. People coming in need to be "buzzed" in via a video com system. Security is armed retired police officers and the school has direct access to the police radio channels.
Another thing you may want to consider is what time the murder takes place. If it's discovered during school hours then the school would go into lock down until the police cleared it.
 

GailD

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In my experience in 'merican schools, lunch and recess are two different things, and high schoolers sadly don't get recess. Recess -- at least in the NE as I know it, is the elementary school period wherein little kids run around the playground being jerks to one another, playing stuff, hanging off semi-dangerous equipment and using up energy that can drive teachers insane. It's also what gets taken away if you don't do stuff or were bad, like you don't get to go out to the playground for recess because you didn't finish your worksheets. High schoolers don't get recess. :(

Ah. Right! Thanks for the correction. Now I've learned something new, too. :) This is exactly why I was cautious about it. :D
 

ReadWriteRachel

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It did help a bunch (u have no idea), thanks! I have another question (Might be my dumbest question yet)...in your school at least, where did the Janitor store his keys? (to most of the places in the school)

The janitors keep their keys on them while they're working. When they're not working, they would have been secured in the administration office, probably within a different locked drawer or cabinet.

Ditto what cornflake said about recess -- recess is an extra break for getting outside or doing recreational activities, and high school students (unfortunately!) don't get recess.

Also important is what Zan75 said about security in high schools. It had ramped up back when I was there, between 2009 and 2012, and I'm sure it's even crazier now. We wore ID badges on lanyards at all times and got in trouble if we were caught without them. Visitors didn't need to be buzzed in, but they did need to stop at the front office and get a visitor's pass (a stick-on nametag with their picture and the date they arrived on campus). We had a few police officers stationed in cars or around the perimeter of the school, responsible for student crimes (marijuana or alcohol, or kids skipping class and hanging out in the parking lot) as well as for keeping the school safe.
 
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Hbooks

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Anything like a swimming pool is likely majorly locked down. A swimming pool is a huge liability. Most schools around here don't have one. Students swim for private teams, and when they get to high school, the high school teams drive to local pools in the mornings to practice.

Schools are under budget crunches, and a pool is the sort of thing that a very small portion of the student population would use, and then only for one, maybe two periods of the day. The rest of the time, it sits unused, a huge, expensive liability waiting for someone to slip and drown.

In most schools students who are not associated with an activity are not allowed in the "wing" for that activity. I.E. non-band students can't just hang out in the band hall bashing on the instruments. So the swimming pool if there is one is going to be kept tightly locked up, with only the coach and janitor having a key to unlock it when the coach is present to supervise swim.
 
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E.Anderson

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As mentioned before, what your fictional town is like will really affect the school setting. Due to the school shootings things have changed a lot in my district since I went to high school in the 90's.
To name a few - All doors are locked now, entrances have shatter proof glass. People coming in need to be "buzzed" in via a video com system. Security is armed retired police officers and the school has direct access to the police radio channels.
Another thing you may want to consider is what time the murder takes place. If it's discovered during school hours then the school would go into lock down until the police cleared it.

Don't worry man, I've got all of that prepared, now Im just coming up with a scheme to steal a janitor's key...

- - - Updated - - -

If u are a lady...i apologize
 

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My son is a senior so I can try to help. How many class periods depends on the school generally. For instance he’s gone to both a public school and a private school. Private school did block schedule where you have 3-4 classes one day and 3 the next (all different) and then it rotates. Last year he’d went to a public school that had 6 classes every day. Lunch can be either 25-60 minutes depending on the school. Usually kids are limited to certain areas because there are still other classes going on (my sons school is so big they have 3 separate lunches).

You don’t generally need a hall pass, you would get a slip if you were late for school though as you have to check in at the office. Schools here (at least where I live) have tight security. You get buzzed into a foyer, then depending who you are, parent student etc, you are let into the school after the first bell has rung. So wandering the halls obviously happens but sometimes there are people monitoring them.

My sons school doesn’t have a pool on site - they use the local community pool - so I can’t answer that one.

Good luck!
 
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ecmorgan

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I can answer based on the high school where I currently teach, in Tennessee.

1. Our students attend each class every other day. They attend three 75-minute classes and one 90-minute class per day. They also attend every day a "PLT" or personal learning time class that is 45 minutes. That time is for electives, senior capstone, etc. This is called block scheduling.

2. We do use passes to leave the classroom during class. How long you stay out really depends on where you are going. Bathroom? 5-10 minutes. Guidance? Could be quite a while. We also do a 20/20 rule which states no student may leave the classroom in the first 20 or last 20 minutes of class.

3. My school does not have a pool, but it sure would be nice!
 

EnzoC

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I graduated in 2015

1. There were 7 or 8 periods and every period was 45 minutes long. We got 5 minute breaks to get to each class. During lunch you had to stay in the cafeteria unless you were going to the library or getting tutoring. Even though it was against the rules, people would just walk out of the school if they felt like it.
2. You didn't need a hall pass. You just had to let the teacher know that you were going to the bathroom. Everyone couldn't go out at the same time though. And the teachers would get annoyed if you were gone for like 10 minutes. Hall monitors didn't exist
3. My school didn't have a pool
 
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