Halloween is right around the corner, and what better way to celebrate Halloween than with some spooky stories? On a late cold night, you gather around with your friends and tell your most haunted experiences. But what if those experiences are coming from a place you spend hours in?
Though typical haunts are houses and graveyards, some early-bird students have been spooked at West. Sophomore Lucy Clarke arrives around 7:35 a.m. and has had many haunted experiences.
“On the morning of Oct. 24, I was on the third floor waiting for my Chemistry class to start. All of a sudden, all the lights went off and the clocks started to spin around really fast,” Clarke said. “The doors also closed all at once which was creepy. No one was by the doors, so nobody could have shut them. Since the doors are held open by magnets, I think something altered the magnetic fields.”
West is a big school with lots of different rooms that most students have never seen or heard of before, but for security guards, that’s a different story. Guards who brave the night shifts are sometimes the only ones in the building. Or are they?
Special Education Paraprofessional, Tony Bravo witnessed lots of creepy events while working the night shift as a security guard.
“I’ve seen doors open on the third floor just randomly, and I’ve seen chairs move on the second floor. It’s crazy once you see these types of things happening in front of you,” Bravo recalled. “When I tell people, some don’t believe me because why would something like that happen in a school?”
Some experiences may be small like doors closing mysteriously, or loud noises with no obvious origin, but for others, the feeling of being in the presence of the supernatural can be life-changing. Security Guard, Jonathan Lacey was supervising a night shift when a guard allegedly encountered a ghost on the football field.
“Once you actually see this stuff for yourself, it’s unreal,” Lacey said, recalling a guard who tumbled backwards down to the field. “He was pretty high up [on the bleachers], working the night shift.” Apparently, an invisible force pulled the guard to the ground from a great height.
When you are at West, make sure you keep your eyes peeled for anything that may look out of the ordinary. Look out for movie chairs or voices in your ear this Halloween at West. But the question still stands, what is haunting West?
