Educated Ghosts in Phoenix
Ghosts in the Valley of the Sun are lifelong learners. How else to explain why area schools are among the most haunted places in Phoenix?
It's no surprise that Chandler High School, a school older than Arizona itself, is haunted. The oldest surviving building on campus is "Old Main". Long-time teachers and staff members tell of hearing and seeing ghostly manifestations on the second floor of the north wing. One custodian supposedly even refused to clean the area after one particularly frightening event.
Haunted happenings are so common at Glendale's Deer Valley High School that the resident ghost has been given the name "Dewey". Although who he was in life, not to mention how and when he died, remains a mystery, patrons and players in the school's Auditorium attribute numerous supernatural occurrences on Dewey, including cold spots, equipment malfunctions, disembodied voices and crying. A few people have even reported seeing him despite the fact that he spends most of his time on the catwalk.
Hayden High School in Phoenix has two ghosts, one of them only recently added to the spectral ranks. The first ghost is that of a football player who died of a broken neck suffered during a home game. Witnesses report seeing him running the ball, falling and vanishing from the football field. The newest ghost is said to have been a member of Hayden's Class of '89. According to the story, she got caught with marijuana and, fearing she would lose her place on the Cardinals' cheer squad, she killed herself. She, like the football player before her, was unable to give up the glory she knew during high school. In the late 1990's witnesses, including a visiting softball team, have reported seeing a girl wearing a cheerleader's uniform perform her routine in the Jr. High Gym then disappear.
Toilets flush for no reason, blow-dryers turn themselves on and lockers open without any help in the girls' gym locker room at Gilbert's Highland Junior High. The school sits on farmland where a father ran over his daughter with a tractor. It is said she never left.
When Marcos de Niza High School in Tempe was under construction, a worker fell through the Auditorium stage and died. Today, in an amazing example of dedication to his work, some people say he can be seen, after 9 p.m., trying to finish the job he started. Students have also reported hearing an almost unintelligible voice or feeling someone touch them when no one is there.
Even Phoenix's most famous haunt, the Hotel San Carlos, has an educational connection. Staff and guests have reported hearing the restless spirits of children playing hopscotch around the site where the first schoolhouse in Phoenix stood from 1874 to 1916. The spirits of young boys have also reportedly been seen in various locations in the hotel.
The most questionable haunting, however, is that of Saguaro High School in Scottsdale. It is questionable, not because the ghost is supposed to be the spirit of a 16-year old girl hung as a witch, but because the hanging, which involved 20 or so townsfolk, occurred in 1786. The high school is said to be built on ground where she played hide-and-seek with her three siblings during happier times. Since Scottsdale is named after Army Chaplain Winfield Scott, who, along with his wife, settled in the region in 1896 and are honored as the first family to do so, the story, or at least the involvement of the townsfolk, is highly suspect.
To end this tale of educated hauntings on a, somewhat, lighter note, if you hear singing in the 6th grade girls' bathroom at Wildflower Elementary School in Goodyear, don't be alarmed...after all, what mischief can little girls get into?
Do you know any educational ghost stories? Please share them!
