How To Find Out If Your School is Haunted

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Via paranormal.about.com by Stephen Wagner

Have you heard that your school is haunted? Have fellow students or even teachers admitted that they have encountered strange activity, such as doors opening and closing on their own, lights going on and off, disembodied footsteps or voices, phantom music, or maybe even an apparition? Perhaps you’ve experienced something unusual yourself. Here are some ways you can find out if your school is haunted.

Difficulty: Average

Time Required: hours, days, weeks

Here's How:

1. Ask around. Seek school staff and ask them if they have had any experiences with strange activity. Those who work after hours might be the most helpful. Maintenance workers are often at the school in the evening or at night when the place is empty and quiet, and paranormal activity can more easily be noticed. Teachers sometimes stay after hours, too, to grade papers, prepare activities, or oversee a student club. Find out if they've come across anything that could be considered paranormal. Likewise ask fellow students if they've had any weird experiences. Ask them to spread the word that you are seeking this information. (Be cautious, however; some students are likely to make up stories.)
2. Check online listings. There are some good sources on the Internet for information about haunted schools. This site has a gallery of Haunted Colleges and Universities. Another great source is Shadowlands.net, which has listings of haunted places for every state. Find your state and city and see if your school is listed as a place where ghosts have been reported. The listing often provides a brief description of reported activity.
3. Do a Google search. Use Google, Bing, or some other online search engine and see if there is any additional information online. For example, enter into the search engine: "John Smith High School" ghosts haunted haunting; perhaps an article will show up in the results that tells you about haunting experiences.
4. Newspaper articles. An online search might yield newspaper articles, but not all newspapers put their archives online. Go to the newspaper and ask how you might conduct such a search of their archives. The local library might be helpful as well.
5. School newspaper. Does your school have a newspaper? Checking back issues of the paper might yield some ghostly anecdotes.
6. Historical Society. The local historical society is often a good source of information about the area, possibly even the school or the grounds upon which it was built. (Perhaps it was once the location of something creepy.) The society might be a source of records, legends, or stories about the location.
7. Ghost hunting groups. Contact any ghost hunting or paranormal investigation groups in your area. They might have information about haunting activity reported at the school. Perhaps they have been contacted by students or staff about experiences there. They might have even done an investigation.
8. Your Own Hunt. If you uncover some evidence that there has been some paranormal activity at your school, you could seek permission to conduct your own investigation. If they allow it, the school authorities will most likely want to have a faculty member or other school staff present. The local ghost investigation group could be helpful in providing guidance and equipment.

Tips:

1. Be persistent. It might be difficult finding out any information about hauntings or ghost reports at your school. Such research can be hard work.
2. Be skeptical. If there are stories or anecdotes about haunting activity at your school, do not automatically assume that they are true. Legends that are nothing more than made up stories are sometimes manufactured by imaginative students. Try to get the best sources you can.
3. Document your experience. If you have had your own paranormal experience at the school, write it down. Be sure to include where and when it happened, who was with you, and every detail of the experience as best as you can remember it, including every sight, sound, smell, and sensation. It might be a good idea to inform a faculty member of your experience also.
4. Document your research. It's quite possible that no one has ever assembled all of the information about paranormal activity at your school. With all of the research you've done, perhaps you can be the first one to put it all together. You could write an article or even create a small booklet or website about your haunted school. Be careful to label rumors as rumors, legends as legends, etc. You want to be a good journalist. Who knows, your English teacher might even give you extra credit for it. I would also be interested in hearing about what you have discovered.

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