Post by Joanna on Jan 9, 2015 23:03:46 GMT -5
Ghost Stalks Idaho High School
POCATELLO, Idaho – Recent bizarre surveillance footage from a local high school shows some unexplained activity haunting the halls of Pocatello High School. On December 19, while the promise of winter break brought about an exodus of students emptying the halls of Poky High, there were a few who stayed behind. And one of them happened to show up on camera. The footage shows a dark, shadow-like figure of an adult up against the drinking fountain before it walks over to the bathroom, walks back out and down the hallway.
Nationally-renowned paranormal experts and co-founders of the Scientific Paranormal Investigative Research Organization John and Lisa Brian were sent in to investigate after multiple reports came in that someone had been tampering with the lights. “You can see that it’s not necessarily a person, but more so a translucent figure walking down the hall,” John said. Both John and Lisa said the surveillance footage is raw and there is no possible way someone could edit surveillance footage because of legal regulations and because its design is so secure.
Even students have heard the bathroom toilets flushing and when they go in to check it out, nobody is in there. “We have watched it multiple times and even slowed it down and really analyzed it. It’s a really great piece of footage,” Lisa said. “You can just see the lights going on and off, the police were called because of these issues going on in the building – all of that just goes to show that it wasn’t something someone just put on there, but instead it was something that really happened.”
In 2008 the Brians started hosting the Haunted History Tours, taking curious folk through the historic downtown buildings that have proven to be haunted after the SPIRO crew picked up paranormal activity happening in these buildings during investigations. This phantom bathroom/hallway dweller is just the tip of the iceberg. During the tours, Poky High has been a hot spot because of its long history of haunting tales, stories, myths and rumors – some true, some, not so much. “Everything from girls having a suicide pact and hanging themselves on their lockers, to a librarian who hung herself on the chandelier, to a boy who drowned in the original swimming pool,” John said.
The SPIRO crew look into history behind all their haunting experiences in an attempt to find a back story or explanation. They also look into the validity of all the explanations they hear. John said over the years, the crew found there were six confirmed deaths that happened at the school (such as the boy who drowned in the pool, which is why the pool was taken out). “We ran into an elderly woman who told us the pact was a real thing, but we haven’t been able to confirm that story quite yet,” John said.
The Brians said pieces of the school have been moved around since it reopened in 1917 after a fire and so parts of the school that were once extremely haunted have moved to other parts of the building. For example, they said there have been theater students, teachers and janitors who refuse to be alone in the theater or the changing room at night because they have often heard people talking or the piano playing when nobody was there. People also feel a dark shadow looming over the rafters which has spooked numerous students. “People have even felt someone walking up right behind them where hairs have stood up on their neck and when they turn around, nobody is there,” Lisa added.
Both John and Lisa recalled during one of their investigations that some of their equipment went missing. A week later, a janitor found their equipment perched on a window sill in one of the school’s stairwells. He said the sill was so high, nobody would be able to reach it without a ladder.
Whether or not you believe in ghosts, the Brians both said their purpose is not to try to convince people the supernatural is roaming about. Instead, it’s just to understand something inexplicable that has been haunting people for almost a century. “Pocatello High School has an incredible history and so this really opens that door to be able to talk about Pocatello High School and talk about its history and the history of our town,” Lisa related. “That’s really important to us as well, because we want to be able to share all of that stuff since we all live here, we all love our city, and so this is kind of a cool way to open our door to some history.”
Watch the video here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0Z5E8AohV8
Source: Kaitlin Loukides, KIDK News, December 31, 2014.
