Creepy Tales Of School Ghosts

If a building stands long enough, it's bound to have tales of a haunting or two. Especially when a person meets their tragic end on the premises. Schools are no different. Living in the 21st century means many of the schools in existence around the world are 100 years old at minimum. The halls have had the souls of thousands of former students pass by their lockers. Memories are made in those classrooms, first loves are found in the gymnasiums during school-sponsored dances, and lifelong friends are made on the playgrounds. Some of those schools have seen students' lives ended before they could get their diplomas. The ancient bricks that make up their walls hold memories, but do some of them hold spirits too?

Ghost stories about schools are pretty common. Every area has its own weird urban legends about Tommy who tragically died in the gym or an evil teacher who came back to terrify children who got Ds on their report cards. What happens when those stories have witnesses? When the apparitions that roam the halls are caught on camera? Well, you end up with some extra creepy tales.

The city of El Paso, Texas has its fair share of haunted locations and its high school is thought to be one of the most haunted schools in the United States. There are reports of what seem to be several different apparitions walking the halls of this high school. Living in the age of technology has its benefits. We carry cameras everywhere we go and have the ability to share videos and pictures with the world at the touch of a button. Well, screens. The most recent spectral account to come from El Paso High was a video released showing the figure of a man in one of the school's upper windows before spontaneously disappearing. Granted, it could've easily been a lighting effect.

The most popular of these ghosts is a nameless cheerleader who, as the story goes, is said to have jumped to her death from the school's balcony. The deceased cheerleader is claimed to still roam the halls, causing cold spots and mysterious mists, and could possibly be the same apparition caught in several photographs. One photo shows a blurry — but still recognizable — shape of a girl standing with a graduating class, and another shows a girl standing between coaches at a football game. Even in death, this cheerleader didn't give up her school spirit.

When Parker Road Elementary was built in Florissant, MO, the building was constructed on land once used as a graveyard. Now, buildings are built on former graveyards all the time, and the graves are relocated to new land elsewhere. Well, many believe that when this particular graveyard was relocated, they missed a few. Which would mean there are still bodies residing below the elementary school. As anyone who's seen Poltergeist knows, this is a sure way to cause a haunting.

The restless spirits of those still buried beneath Parker Road are said to roam the halls. Students have heard the sounds of a girl weeping in the bathroom only to find it unoccupied. Spooky enough, right? Thankfully, the weeping girl mainly sticks to her spectral-self and doesn't cause many problems, unlike another spirit within the school. A woman in an emerald-colored dress is said to be the main terror of the elementary, per Missouri Ghosts. The woman, who's said to have no eyes in her ghoulish head, has not only been spotted by several students but has allegedly chased them through the school's corridors. It's not only the students who have had ghostly encounters. Teachers claim to hear disembodied screams after hours.

Bellview Elementary in Tulsa, Oklahoma, is one of the oldest schools in the state. That's the thing about old buildings: they're old. A school built two years ago, pending a spontaneous tragedy, wouldn't seem like the type of place to be haunted. Whereas a school built over a century ago would have ample time to build its collection of spirits, if you believe in that sort of thing.

When Bellview was still operational — it shut down in 1990 — it was believed to have a trickster spirit roaming its halls. It's said that a young boy fell from a window and died sometime in the early years of the building, per Halloween Head. The school building has since been renovated in turned into multiple businesses, but the boy remains. Glasses have flown off the shelf in a bar that now resides in a part of the old building. A man waiting in the lobby of one of the businesses witnessed the boy crawl through a window. He was on one of the upper floors. So, of course, he inquired as to the patio that surely was on the other side, only to discover two disturbing things: 1) It was a straight shot to the ground and 2) The window the boy had crawled through didn't even open. Apparently, this ghost child gets his kicks scaring the bejeezus out of people.

The Kangaroo Inn School was built across the street from the old Kangaroo Inn in southern Australia. The Inn provided a place for weary travelers from all over Australia during the Australian gold rush in the 1800s and is the location of an unsolved murder, though it's unclear if this murder has anything to do with the school's alleged haunting. It's believed, instead, that the couple who had run the Inn are buried under the location of the school. Still, the hauntings have been more bizarre than a couple of spectral inn-owners could account for.

On a March night in 1993, a sleepover was organized to take place in the school. Sounds like a fun way for the kids to get out of the house. During the night, the students and staff alike heard a dog barking from somewhere in the school but, of course, there were no dogs inside the school, according to Spooky Schools. Everyone heard it though. Suddenly, they spotted a ghostly terrier sticking halfway out of the wall. An orb floated from the wall where the dog had been chillin', and that got the dog moving. The terrier ran from the wall to chase the mysterious, floating green orb through the school, barking incessantly. Needless to say, they were all terrified.

It's generally believed — by those who believe in the supernatural anyway — that ghosts are the restless spirits of those who had unfinished business left in the Earthly realm. They're often tied to strong emotions or tragic events. In the case of the Waldniel Hostert School, it was definitely the latter. The school was used for some of the most atrocious activities ever perpetrated by the Nazis, who at the time used the school to house children with mental disabilities. Here, Nazis horrifically tortured and killed the children within Waldniel Hostert School, according to Culture Trip.

The trauma that occurred within the confines of the school during Nazi rule was more than enough to leave behind tormented shades of the children they murdered. People have reportedly heard screams coming from the school building at night. Their spirits can be seen walking the grounds and heard weeping in the corridors. Waldniel Hostert School is haunted by children who may never find peace.

Centennial Hall in Valentine, Nebraska, was built before the turn of the 20th century and is the oldest standing high school in the state, though it's currently used as a museum, per Visit Valentine. Rumors of spiritual activity, if not spirits themselves, have haunted Centennial Hall's reputation and its building for decades. The ghost that haunts Centennial Hall can be traced back to 1944.

The story seems to be cemented in stone at this point whether it's true or not — partly because of rumors and partly because the internet exists. Either way, the story states that a girl was poisoned within the school in 1944. While investigators were looking into her murder, they learned the vehicle for the poison was the reed of the girl's clarinet, according to Haunted Journeys. Before the school was turned into the museum, the teachers claimed to see the clarinetist's figure from time to time throughout the building. Things haven't changed a whole lot, since visitors report generic haunting activity at the museum. You know, lights flickering and disembodied voices and the like. What's spine-chilling is that music can allegedly be heard coming from the school's former music room even though it hasn't housed instruments in years.

In a haunting that takes a page from J.K. Rowling's "Moaning Myrtle," a spirit is said to haunt the girl's bathroom of Colegio Salvatierra, a primary school in Santa Rosalía, Mexico. That's about as far as the similarities between this haunting and Rowling's ghost go. The ghost who haunts Colegio Salvatierra isn't a weeping teenage girl but, instead, a laughing young boy. The boy allegedly died there in the ladies' room while playing a game of marbles. The reason he chose the girls' bathroom of all places seems to be lost in history.

The boy must not have been very good at the game because he accidentally swallowed one. He choked on the marble and passed away. Well, not all the way away. Reports say the child never left Colegio Salvatierra, nor did he give up marbles. Accounts from Travel Triangle say the girls of the school claim that the clank of those glass beads can still be heard in the restroom, along with a child's laughter. Laughing children are usually a blessing in life, but a child's laugh seemingly produced from thin air is enough to scare anyone. 

The alleged haunting at SKM Pengkalan Chepa 2, a school in northern Malaysia, was so out of this world that it was featured on BBC News. In 2016, several students and staff members at the school reported having seen spirits throughout the building or having experienced other paranormal phenomena. So many, in fact, that the school officials shut the place down. Even to the officials, this haunting was a real problem. They called in Islamic scholars and exorcists to get rid of the spirits that were running amok.

Apparently, there was a black specter skulking around the building. A photo was released that clearly shows some human-shaped black entity hiding behind a pillar in SKM Pengkalan Chepa 2. No one knows for sure who or what is behind the object in the photo, but the experiences of people who were there are chilling. One teacher claimed to have felt the presence of the figure hanging onto her, while a student says it attempted to enter her body. Another says the being caused his mind to be confused and his hands to go numb. All in all, around 100 people claimed to have had an experience from that terrifying week, while government officials classified the happening as mass hysteria.

Poasttown Elementary in Middletown, OH, ran from 1937 until it closed down in 2000. It has since become the home of Darrell and Brenda Whisman and the sight of over 100 paranormal investigations. The Whismans now tend to the school so visitors can experience the paranormal themselves. Granted, an investigation will cost you several hundred dollars, but that's how the spirits pay their rent.

The Poasttown School website has posted several videos of happenings within its walls. In one of the videos, you hear the sounds of children yelling, while the crew taping the scene acts wildly confused. There haven't been any living students in the school for decades, but Darrell Whisman theorizes that there were two train crashes near the school at the turn of the 20th century that could explain the hauntings, per WCPO. Another video shows a door opening on its own. Darrell claims that every time that particular door opens on its own, he physically feels something. He also includes a photo of a head injury he received from this phenomenon. In yet another video, a sleeping Darrell's leg gets pulled by an invisible figure while what looks like the head of a cat appears at the top of his bed. Poasttown Elementary's official motto is "When you leave, you believe," and that about sums it up.

Pocatello High School in Pocatello, Idaho, is apparently haunted enough to find itself on A&E's Ghost Hunters reboot. That's saying something. The school has gone through some trauma in its past. It's had six people die on school grounds and was burnt down entirely in the early 1900s. Pocatello High is just the type of place you'd expect to find paranormal activity, and it's reported that several students and teachers don't ever want to be left there by themselves.

School officials claim that haunted activity has been going on there for a long time. Sure, it's eerie enough when the piano plays on its own, but a video from the school's surveillance cameras is the real reason why paranormal investigators are so taken with the place. The video in question shows a shadow figure moving from a bench to the bathroom, and it's creepy enough to make you turn the lights on. Alleged students from Pocatello commented on the video to confirm the school is indeed haunted. According to Ghost Hunters, a ghost sitting on the bleachers of the school's gym has told students to "be quiet." When the Ghost Hunters team investigated the gym, they recorded sounds that seemed to respond to their questions as well as a heavy presence and intense cold.

Matthew Whaley Elementary School in Williamsburg, VA, is named after a former student who died at the age of nine in 1705. Whaley is said to be one of the students who haunts this elementary school. If that's true, Whaley would have to have an emotional bond with the school's concept and not the building itself since the school has relocated twice since the time of his death. It's said that Matthew can be seen wandering the school grounds and playing on the playground. Teachers have also reported hearing his footsteps through the halls when the school was empty.

Now, Whaley might not be the ghost who haunts this school. For one, the school isn't in a location a spectral nine-year-old would easily find. Believers in the supernatural tend to think ghosts gravitate to familiar places. Plus, there have been enough tragedies on the school grounds that other shades could be responsible for the happenings. Two boys are rumored to have been lynched on the school grounds during a time of racial violence, per Colonial Ghosts. A common report of hauntings at this elementary school includes two boys playing together on school grounds.

Deerpark CBS school in Cork, Ireland, was built on a sight that was just begging for a haunting. The land where Deerpark CBS was constructed was once a place where they used to hang prisoners sentenced for death. Creepy, right? Well, the school began to notice paranormal activity right around Halloween of 2017. It easily could've been a prank had there not been video footage that suggests otherwise. "We couldn't understand how this had occurred," deputy principal Aaron Wolfe said about the incident, "If it is a prank, it's very well done!"

The video was filmed on the school's surveillance cameras and the activity was first noticed by Wolfe who then sent it to principal Kevin Barry in a "What the heck is going on here?" type of confusion. The videos show a door flying open with no one around, lockers being pushed away from the wall, and what looks like a "wet floor" sign being kicked by an invisible entity. Once Halloween had passed, the activity seemed to stop. Just kidding. The surveillance cameras caught more instances of unexplained phenomena, such as chairs levitating, a poster being ripped from the wall, and bags pulled out of storage cubbies. If this did happen to be some sort of prank, the jokesters kept it going long after the holiday and make many non-believers question their convictions.