Mrs. Jennifer O'Toole To All Instructors

My name is Jennifer O’Toole. I am married with 2 children. My husband teaches high
school math, Spanish, and coaches football in Burke County. My daughter is homeschooled and
will be attending Highland Academy this fall. My son has just turned 18, and he will be leaving
for Coast Guard boot camp this summer. I currently work for an oil spill response company as
their prevention specialist. I write oil spill response plans for numerous oil facilities as well as
making sure they are compliant with state and federal regulations as per their response plans. I
have also been a substitute teacher in Burke County for the past 5 years.
I will be teaching Forensic Science, Coding and Computer Science, and Later History
this year. I spent 20 years in the Coast Guard as a Marine Science Technician. I was a specialist
in maritime law enforcement, safety, security, and environmental protection. Some of my
responsibilities included boarding foreign vessels for safety and security purposes, responding to
oil spills and hazardous material releases as a pollution investigation and a cleanup supervisor,
and inspecting various ports and containers that are both imported and exported via container
ships. The largest oil spill response I was involved in was the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill in
2010. I was in the offshore cleanup group where I was on fishing boats teaching fisherman how
to use skimmers to clean up oil floating on top of the water. I was also flying in helicopters over
the spill to get a better view of the oil so I could communicate with the fisherman where the
recoverable oil was located.
Forensic science was used often in my job while responding to oil spills without a
responsible party. I would take samples of oil in the water and compare them to samples of oil on
vessels by sending it to the Coast Guard lab to have it analyzed. I would get results similar to
fingerprint and DNA analysis. This would tell me exactly which vessel the oil came from. I
would also take pictures, collect witness statements, map the scene, create a chain of custody,
and document everything as evidence to charge the responsible party and prepare for court.
Forensic science was also used during any Coast Guard cocaine drug interdiction. I was involved
in two large cocaine busts with both vessels each carrying approximately 4,400 pounds of
cocaine. To determine if the white substance was in fact cocaine, the Coast Guard followed the
Scott test procedure which is specifically designed for testing cocaine. This reagent turns blue
when in contact with cocaine and pink upon dilution. There were also times after maritime
incidents that I would administer a breathalyzer test to a ship captain or crew as well as a
urinalysis test to determine if drugs or alcohol were present in the body.
After I retired from the Coast Guard, I started homeschooling my daughter. She is very
interested in computers and coding, so I have jumped on board with learning it myself. This fall,
students will learn basics about computer science as well as how to use the beginner coding
program called Scratch. This is a perfect introduction before getting into more complicated
programming like Python or JavaScript. Scratch is a visual programming language where users
create programs by dragging and connecting graphical blocks, rather than typing code. It's
designed to be accessible and engaging, especially for beginners.
History has always been my favorite subject, and I enjoy teaching it. I love history
because it can teach us so much about our past and about society. We can analyze history to
understand why things are the way they are. Through studying history, we can see how societies
became the way they are and get lost in the layers of culture throughout centuries. We can see
what’s going on in the present so much better through the lens of history.

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