Five Terrifyingly Haunted Schools

Post by Graveyardbride on Apr 1, 2015 13:29:47 GMT -5

Five Terrifyingly Haunted Schools

Schools are often places of torment. Kids have to deal with relentless bullies, unsympathetic teachers and unending days of public humiliation. Nothing sums up this feeling of hopelessness better than the brutal prom scene in Carrie, when the antagonized main character finally snaps and gets her revenge on her classmates. This scene absolutely petrified me when I first watched this classic. Granted, I was about nine years old, but it made me never want to step foot in a school gymnasium ever again. Now, despite the fact that I’m well past those years, I’m getting that same nauseous, malign sensation that was once so familiar. This time, however, it’s a result of the overabundance of supposedly haunted schools in the United States. If you want to risk never entering a school again, here are the five of the freakiest cases of paranormal activity in elementary and high schools:

Pocatello High School (Pocatello, Idaho). After last year’s winter break, surveillance footage from Pocatello High School made its way onto the Internet. At the beginning, it shows deserted hallways, normal for that time of the year with students home for the holidays. Then, a shadowy figure makes its way out a doorway and moves into the corridor before lights flicker wildly and various screens go berserk. After kids and staff returned, some students and even teachers, reported hearing strange whispers and noises. Some outright refused to enter the auditorium alone because of shadow that hangs over it. Eventually, the “presence” became so disturbing that the school summoned paranormal investigators. The team concluded there had been six deaths on the property. The school was burned in 1914 and rebuilt in 1918. Could the presence be souls from the beyond attempting to communicate with current students?

Lee Williams High School (Kingman, Arizona). There’s a chamber in Lee Williams High about the size of a tomb to which only the principal dares enter. It’s dusty, cramped and chilly (even in the Arizona heat). Principal Steve Elwood says kids will serve detention here if they are seriously misbehaving. Apparently, this is more than just a scary room. There are persistent rumors that the school is haunted by specters from another century when Kingman was a frontier town. Students have seen men in bowler hats and long coats in the hallway, spirits upset because their homes were destroyed to build the school. The janitor is totally convinced, claiming he hears footsteps and even the voice of a little girl mumbling in the boy’s bathroom. Part of the school is built over an old cemetery where bodies of early settlers and Indians were buried. Sounds to me like this is your typical American Indian burial ground with quite the debt to settle, so tell me why they would choose to build a school there.

Lambertville High School (Lambertville, New Jersey). Built in 1854, Lambertville High School was the site of a devastating fire sometime between 1925 and 1926. A rumored 150 people perished as most of the building crumbled around them. After it was rebuilt in 1927, another fire ravaged the school a few years later, and there was talk of a curse. Police kept an eye on the burned-out building to prevent trespassers who could possibly fall through the floorboards to their deaths. There were legends that the ghosts of children roamed the building, alternatively laughing and screaming in pain. According to another legend, drawings depicting children in a blaze of fire would spontaneously appear on the chalkboards chalk boards. The ruins of the building have since been demolished because it had become of a favorite destination of ghost-hunters and other thrill-seekers. But did the ghosts leave with the rubble?

Epsom Red Schoolhouse (Epsom, New Hampshire). There is no evidence of what is said to have taken place at the Epsom Red Schoolhouse (pictured above) and this has led to speculation as to the cause of the paranormal activity. Legend has it that 12 young children were abused by their teacher and he eventually murdered them. Whatever happened, the little building has been the subject of many paranormal investigations by ghost-hunters who claim to have picked up three instances of an EVP (electronic voice phenomenon) and multiple orbs in photos. But whether it’s haunted or not, the idea of 12 children being tortured to death in a school so quaint is enough to make my stomach turn.

Willowbrook State School (New York, New York). In potentially the most disturbing and tragic events to ever occur at an American school, Willowbrook State School (above) was founded as a facility for disabled children in 1947. Outbreaks of hepatitis were common, affecting approximately 90% of students. Doctors took the opportunity to conduct tests on the children, effectively turning them into human guinea pigs in the process. In one case, a doctor fed live hepatitis virus to 60 uninfected children, taking notes as their eyes became a sickly yellow and their livers bulged. The tests have been called the most unethical medical experiments ever performed on children in the United States. By the 1960s, the institution had developed a reputation for horrendous living conditions, with patients living in filth like animals in a zoo. Geraldo Rivera investigated the campus and found that overcrowding, broken and sullied bathrooms and sexual and physical abuse at the hands of the staff were common. This led to the school’s closure in 1987, but before that occurred, one little girl named Jennifer Schwieger went missing. Her body was found on the grounds and the custodian was blamed of the crime.

There are reports of disembodied wails and screams and people have felt themselves being pushed around by shadowy figures. There are rumors in Staten Island of a Satanic cult that uses the building and grounds for devilish activity. If all of this sounds familiar, it's because many speculate that American Horror Story: Asylum was based on the tragic events that occurred at Willowbrook.

Source: Tommy DePaoli, MoviePlot, March 27, 2015.