Ghostly Encounter At My First School

My fascination with the paranormal created quite a bit of mayhem when I started school. I was going to the same school where my sister and older brothers went before me. I had one older brother who still went to the same school at the time, and he kind made a point of it that when I saw him at school I was not to bother him. My brother was also the one who told me about the old annex building at school being haunted. The annex building used to be the original school house for one of the first schools in Columbus, Ohio.

I remember meeting my teacher on the first day and she seemed pretty nice. It made me feel better about the ghost stories my  older brother told me. I was not keen to go to school at first. Not only did we grow up in a house that was haunted, could it be true that the school was haunted too!

“We don’t believe in ghosts, Mrs. Phipps.” “Don’t matter if you believe in them or not. If they’re there, they’re there” ~ Joan Lowery Nixon

On Fridays we had “share day” and the teacher asked us to tell a funny story an older person in our life had told us. When it got to be my turn to “share”, I told the class that both of my older brothers told me that the annex building at the school was haunted, and that the ghosts of some of the former teachers still walk the hallways and went into classrooms.

The teacher knew who my older brother was, since she had him in her class before I came along. She said my brother John was just being silly and when she had him as a student he would also talk about his family home being haunted. I responded, “Well, our house is haunted.”

Of course, the other kids started to freak out! She had a difficult time calming everyone down, claiming that we were just joking around. After class she asked me not to bring up the haunted stuff anymore, because it will make the other kids afraid and they might complain to their parents.

And as time went on, she would talk to me once in a while about my house being haunted and if something new in my house had happened. I would sometimes draw her pictures of what I had seen in my house. I’m still not sure if she was just curious, or whether she was trying to be supportive and understanding.

When I was done with the fifth grade, it was time for me to finally move to the annex building. In the past we only went over there on Fridays to watch a cartoon, but now I could walk the halls and seriously hunt for ghosts. I heard so much stories about the place being haunted and could not wait to spot my first apparition.

A person terrified with the imagination of spectres, is more reasonable than one who thinks the appearance of spirits fabulous and groundless ~ Joseph Addison

My new teacher was young and fresh out of college. I remember she had very bright red hair. When I sat down at my new desk I could feel there was something in this class room. I suspected I was going to have a hard time concentrating in this class. But days went by and everything seemed to be going well.

Then one day I saw a shadow going past my teacher… and then it was behind her. As she was writing on the chalk board, she looked around, as if someone had tapped her on the shoulder. She looked around, but saw no one behind her. She had a strange look on her face.

After lunch we returned to our desks, and once again she started to write on the chalk board. This time, from the opposite direction, it looked like the same shadow went behind her. This time my teacher turn around very quickly! All the kids were giggling and she looked at the class suspiciously. Then she noticed that I was not laughing. I was just staring at her. It felt like I could not move, as if something paralyzed my body for a couple of seconds.

After class my teacher asked me why I didn’t laugh like the other kids. I told her that since I can remember I was able to see ghosts and about my other paranormal experiences. She could see I was not joking around and she asked me how I managed from day to day living in a haunted house. I told her, “You get used to it.”

I later heard that a former school teacher died there of natural causes. After leaving that school, to go to high school, I went back to see the new school, which they had built there a few years later. And although the old building was gone, I could still sense that old school teacher walking the hallways.