Across the United States, schools are often seen as places where students form lasting memories, friendships, and sometimes, unforgettable experiences. However, for some schools, those memories might include more than just the daily grind of classwork and extracurricular activities. Many high schools across the country are steeped in eerie legends and unsettling histories, rumored to be haunted by the restless spirits of the past. These haunted high schools have become the subjects of local folklore, attracting ghost hunters and curious students who wonder if the eerie whispers in the halls could be something more than a figment of their imagination.
From reports of shadowy figures and cold spots in otherwise warm classrooms to strange noises and flickering lights in deserted corridors, the tales of haunted high schools are as varied as they are chilling. In some cases, these ghost stories are tied to tragic events that occurred on school grounds, such as accidents or violent incidents, while in others, they seem to stem from the long history of the buildings themselves. Whether driven by unexplainable phenomena or the rich histories of the schools, these haunted high schools continue to capture the imagination of students, faculty, and paranormal enthusiasts alike, sparking intrigue and fear about what might be lurking just beyond the edge of reality.
1. Hibbing High School, Minnesota
Hibbing High is not your average hum-drum school building. Here, the staircases are marble, the railings are brass, and art deco walls hold the whole, almost medieval, design together. The auditorium was modeled after the Capitol Theatre, a sight in itself. When Bob Dylan was still Robert Zimmerman and a student at Hibbing High, he performed on the auditorium stage during a talent show. But even with star performers and a stunning design, the lone seat inside the auditorium attracts the most attention. The story goes that the first stage manager, Bill, was employed at the school from 1927 to the late 1960s, when he died after a chandelier fell on his head. Rumors soon flew that Bill never really vacated his favorite seat in the theatre, namely J-47. In the early ’90s, Chuck Perry, the stage manager since 1979, took photographs of the auditorium after a woman reported feeling a cold chill as she walked around the J-47 row. And lo and behold, one of the photographs, taken with a Polaroid camera, showed a man sitting in J-47, wearing formal clothes and a top hat. Oh, and you could see right through him. One of the first stories Perry ever heard about ghosts being present in the school auditorium involved the backstage area. Perry said the incident occurred in the mid-1970s, before he started working at the high school.
“We have 10 dressing rooms, and one is large. Supposedly, this gal was back there getting her makeup on before the show. Somebody walked into the dressing room. She assumed they were in costume, so she looked up and saw they had just gone. And that happened two or three times in that room.”
Around the auditorium, several students and staff have heard footsteps in the hallways towards the auditorium. One such incident involved a janitor who claimed to have heard someone enter a classroom behind him while cleaning one night after school. As he turned around to look, he heard footsteps move back into the hall and return to his work, only to have the footsteps return. Never seeing anything, the janitor only hears phantom footsteps and isn’t alone.
Hibbing High School is so haunted that it was included in this book about America’s most haunted locations.
2. Maui High School, Hawaii
Founded in 1913, early students arrived at this public high school by either horse and buggy or the now-defunct Kahului Railroad. In the early days of its existence, Maui High School was considered an artificial wonder in Hawaii.
Nestled in Hamakuapoko, Maui, a sugarcane plantation town, Maui High School operated until 1972, when it moved to its new location in Kahului. Over the years, much of the campus was lost to bulldozers and fires, but what still stands is hauntingly beautiful. It’s one of the lesser-known haunted places in Hawaii.
The old school site, which includes the campus’ centerpiece administration building built in 1921, has since fallen into disrepair. By 2003, overgrown greenery all but obscured the arches and spires. Legend has it that “choking ghosts” used to accost students who were skipping class. The ghost of a girl crying inside the boarded-up high school bathroom has also been reported.
In Hawaii, the general belief is that those who have died always return to the places they frequented when they were alive. At Old Maui High, it is said that some students and teachers still walk the grounds and sometimes even interact with the living. There have been reports of students exploring the ruins of the school, only to be choked within an inch of their lives by invisible hands.
3. Old Portland High School, Michigan
The old high school in Portland, Ionia County, Michigan, opened in 1881. According to a longstanding urban legend, a 14-year-old student was crushed to death underneath a pile of gym bleachers that collapsed on her in 1918. The janitor, who failed to fix the bleachers after learning they were faulty, disappeared. It is believed that the student’s father killed the janitor out of revenge for his daughter’s death. He then burned the body and set fire to the school. The school was rebuilt and reopened in 1920. However, the ghosts of the girl and the janitor remained. Decades later, the school was converted into a housing complex named Old School Manor. It served as housing between 1992 and 2008, and during this time, several tenants reported that their household items would disappear, only to be found stacked on top of one another in a different room. Others reported hearing the disconnected school bells ringing, and some have even encountered the student’s ghost who allegedly slapped them on the back. One tenant, in particular, had a horrendous experience with the janitor’s ghost. She alleged that the ghost would terrorize her two-year-old daughter and demanded that she tell her mother they had to move out of their apartment.
4. Nightmute High School, Arizona
In the heart of Alaska’s remote wilderness lies the quiet village of Nightmute. Nightmute High School, an otherwise ordinary structure with a rather creepy reputation, stands among just a handful of buildings.
For years, students and teachers have talked about strange happenings—the sound of footsteps in empty halls, doors creaking open without a hand pushing them, and, most terrifying, the figure of a young girl. Many believe she’s trapped, unable to move on.
Ask anyone in Nightmute about the school’s ghost, and they’ll tell you about the little girl. No one knows who she is, but almost everyone agrees on her appearance—young, sad, and mostly silent. She appears in glimpses, caught only in one’s periphery before she vanishes. Sometimes, she stands at the end of a hallway, but is often said to frequent both the girls’ and boys’ bathrooms.
Some say she was once a student who met a tragic end, while others insist she has been there much longer, bound to the land long before the school was ever built.
One night, a janitor claims that he locked the door behind him after cleaning a classroom. As he turned away, he heard the click of the lock disengaging. The door creaks very slowly, but no one is there. Convinced someone was playing a prank, he checked the security cameras the next day. The footage showed precisely what he had seen—an empty hallway and classroom and the door opening independently.
Another teacher recounted how, on multiple occasions, she had locked her classroom door at night, only to return in the morning to find it wide open. Sometimes, papers left on her desk were scattered all over the floor as if something had rummaged through them in the night.
There are also moving objects. Textbooks slide off desks with no warning, and chairs shift when no one is looking. In one infamous instance, a teacher left the classroom for a few minutes. When she returned, she found every desk turned to face the back wall. No students were there, and no one had entered the room.
5. Las Vegas High School, Nevada
In 1931, the Las Vegas Academy of the Arts was known as Las Vegas High School. It was the first official high school in the city and where the ghost of a former teacher, Mr. Petri, roamed after he died in a mysterious fire. Even after the school converted into an arts academy, haunting rumors continued.
Some people reported seeing a man in a white tux occupying a particular seat in the theater. In contrast, others felt sharp temperature drops and experienced intense sadness and despair whenever they entered the building.
A teacher, John Morris, was skeptical about these stories, but he did admit to having a strange experience of his own. The high school once put on a play called The Spoon River Project, and the stage was set up with a fog machine and a makeshift cemetery. The director of the play approached Morris and told him she saw a small naked boy standing right next to her during the production. The boy told her that he needed clothes before disappearing. Morris rolled his eyes and tried to convince the director that it was all in her mind. The rest of the night went off without a hitch, and after everyone left, only Morris and his three-year-old daughter were inside the theater. Morris ensured all the doors were shut and locked before calling his daughter so they could go home. She was playing on a mound of grass used in the play and told her father she didn’t want to go yet because she was playing with a friend. Morris didn’t see anyone, and believing she was talking about an imaginary friend, he indulged her by saying she could play for a few more minutes. His daughter said, “It’s that little boy over there; he has no clothes on.”
6. Elizabeth V. Edwards School, New Jersey
In 2014, USA Today highlighted the SyFy Ghost Hunters investigation of the Elizabeth “Lizzy” V. Edwards School in Barnegat, NJ, named for its “original schoolmarm” who taught there until the day she died in 1965.
The building, built in 1930, has been abandoned and vacant since 2004. It was used as both a high school and an elementary school. USA Today reports, “Some school officials believe the building is haunted. They feel it’s still inhabited by something, or someone, otherworldly.”
Some believe the ghost haunting the school is Lizzy. She’s considered a “good ghost.” Lizzy, along with her fellow ghosts, spends her time “slamming lockers, turning lights on and off, and playing 1940s music for no one in particular.”
Some other ghostly encounters include witnesses who spotted an apparition of a “translucent woman wearing a floral print dress with her hair piled up high onto her head.” Another apparition wears khaki pants. Lights are also seen on at night, but upon investigation, it’s discovered that no light bulbs are installed anywhere in the building.
A nighttime renovation worker witnessed a door opening, ran from the building, and returned to find that his ladder had been moved to another hallway. Another worker reported an unplugged phone ringing.
7. Roy High School, Utah
Built in 1965, Roy High School has been plagued by stories of ghostly encounters and unexplained paranormal events attributed to three separate ghosts.
The first is Backstage Mabel. No one knows who Mabel was, how she died, why she’s at the school, or even where her name comes from. She likes to hang out in the auditorium and appear backstage, especially on the winding staircase. Witnesses report that she is a trickster and enjoys turning the stage and other lights off and on. She moves stage props and even makes props disappear.
The next ghost, the lady in the purple hat, is said to be less kind. She wears a purple hat and attempts to get people who see her to follow her. Witnesses report feeling bad and a sense of evil energy coming from her.
The third apparition moves through the entire school but favors hanging out in the halls. Witnesses have reported being in the halls when there was no one or just a few people on campus and sensing someone staring or glaring at them. Some people believe it is the spirit of a boy who was killed by a train.
8. Old Milton Elementary School, Illinois
Old Milton Elementary School in Alton, IL, was built in 1904 and abandoned in 1984. In 1990, it was purchased by a decorative glass manufacturer, which still maintains its business in the building.
Supposedly during the 1930s a janitor murdered a school girl named Mary in the school’s locker room. Weeks later, the janitor hanged himself from an exposed beam in the school hallway.
Soon after the murder and suicide, teachers, students, and visitors began to see and hear things that could only be described as paranormal. When women visit the area where Mary was murdered, they often feel nervous and uneasy.
Other witnesses reported sightings and audio of Mary’s ghost in an office, encounters with a hostile entity, unexplained sounds, and strange shadows. A paranormal investigation and psychic exorcism of the evil spirit were part of a 2010 Ghost Hunters episode on SyFy Channel.
When the glass company moved into the building, the employees began to have similar ghostly experiences.
9. Pocatello High School, Idaho
This haunted school is perhaps one of the best documented school hauntings, thanks to security surveillance cameras. Back in 2014, the school received national attention for several minutes of raw security video taken during a school holiday that showed some strange activity, including electrical disturbances and what appeared to be an apparition walking out of a bathroom.
Custodians also report seeing a female in a dress in the school’s theater, kids mention seeing a spirit in the gym, and witnesses say they see a woman sitting in the library window when the school is empty.
Former principal Don Cotent talks about his late-night experiences with the paranormal. He said that on three or four occasions, he was disturbed from his work by the sound of someone banging beneath the floor with something like a broom handle. On each occasion, he stomped his feet and yelled to the intruder that he was busy and didn’t have time for such distractions.
The school eventually brought in a paranormal investigative team that surmised the ghostly activity might be related to six deaths on the school property and the 1914 fire that destroyed the original building (the school was rebuilt in 1918).
In 2019, A&E’s Ghost Hunters investigated the 125-year-old high school. The team experienced many phenomena there, including significant power drains and electronic voice phenomena. They concluded that something of a paranormal nature was happening at the school.
10. Cathedral High School, California
No wonder this school is haunted; it rests on an old cemetery! Cathedral High School was built on the site of one of LA’s oldest city cemeteries, Calvary Cemetery. All the important magnates of the country around Los Angeles were buried there, such as Gen. Andrés Pico, the hero of the Battle of San Pascual.
The final burial occurred in the late 1880s before a new Calvary Cemetery was established elsewhere. They moved most of the graves, but not all. The old Calvary Cemetery mainly sat abandoned for decades, eventually resulting in grave robbing, vandalization, and being overrun by the homeless.
When the high school broke ground, it appears that not all the internments and tombstones had made their way to the new location. Throughout the school’s history, different renovations and construction have led to the school’s unearthing of buried tombstones and even a coffin. Now, some of those artifacts decorate the school’s campus, particularly the football field, where a donor paid to have tombstones showcased and lit up along the perimeter of the field. They also honor their macabre past with the school’s mascot, the Cathedral Phantoms.
“We’re proud of our old heritage,” Martin Farfan, Cathedral’s president, said.
The tombstones may not be the only reminder of the school’s former life as a cemetery. During renovations in 2006, the school dug up bones and religious artifacts buried with bodies.
According to Farfan, various people, mostly maintenance workers, have reported hearing and seeing things. Some have sworn to have felt some presence at night. You can even view a balloon following a custodian around the hallway here. Visitors report seeing ghostly figures, hearing screams and moans, feeling cold spots, and experiencing unexplained touches.