The Haunting of Southeast High School ,Oklahoma City

It started with one little sentence “My aunt the ghost hunter got something strange on her video camera while filming the dance production”. That sentence has lingered and has grown tremendously over the past 4 years at South East High School in Oklahoma City. Being fairly new to the “ghost hunting” scene, I will admit that I had what many people have gone through… I call it “ghost fever”. Speaking with my niece asking her if there were any rumors at her High School about ghosts she said “not yet”. While filming one of her dance recitals one evening during her freshman year, I did capture an anomaly on film, but it was far from a ghost.

At the time, I was reading up on séances, the Salem witch trials, and hysteria in general, but mainly how easy it was to cause an effect with just a simple implication.

 Raising the question to my niece. If she would share my video capture with the others at school, soon later, the stories and strange occurrences started to commence. My niece at the time a very mature 14 years old, realized that there was probably nothing very paranormal happening at her school, but being a skeptic, she started to feed the fire.

Teens started talking, and with this being a high school, I am positive that it took maybe six hours to officially spread the word to thousands of students.

Within a weeks’ time, South East High school was officially “Haunted”. Our mission accomplished.

  My niece would periodically report paranormal stories that she had heard to me over the years. She told me one story in particular. I am positive this story will linger in the school walls for many years to come. Keep in mind; teenagers in a matter of weeks created this story!

The stories go something like this...

“In the 70’s a janitor was cleaning the auditorium. Over time he has had many names, but Henry was one of them that I can remember.

Henry was a lonely janitor and a little distant from people, the kids called him strange and even “retarded”. He was teased a lot by students and was “accidentally” pushed down the back stage stairs by students, they left him there to die a slow and painful death and was discovered the following Monday. His ghost still haunts the auditorium to this day.”

Another story involving this same janitor is similar but the legend is that he either hanged himself on stage or he again, fell down the stairs after one to the drama clubs productions He was not discovered until that following Monday, his ghost still haunts the auditorium and the halls of South East to this day.”

Being the skeptic, my niece even admitted to me that she personally witnessed a strange thing happening when certain songs would be played for dance recitals. She joked to me “It was the ghost, he didn’t like it”. Knowing my niece and what she said, I had to ask her “Do you believe that your school is haunted now?” she continued to tell me about all the strange things, and that her and a group of girls stretching on the stage, all witnessed what sounded like “footsteps” dragging across the wooden stage floor. “I heard it,” she said. Its not that I don’t believe her, because I do, but it also makes me wonder if a real life “haunting” had been created over the 4 years, by mere rumors and total teenage belief.

Pretty convincing isn’t it? Even the most reputable of “ghost hunters” would follow up on a lead such as this one if it was reported enough, or held a strong enough legend within a community. I am assured the next generation of ghost hunters will hear about this location & arrange for an investigation. Sounds like many Urban Legends across the nation doesn’t it?  Is this an invented haunting?

Creating a haunting, why is that so many teams who are just starting out and have what I like to call “ghost fever” collect so much evidence, and really good evidence. Its because I feel they believe a little more than a person who has spent 5+ years of their life to this type of research. Belief becomes dead after a while. Total belief, is that all that it takes to witness a ghost? In my opinion the answer is yes.

Creating a haunting is not an impossible thing. Just say the words, and it will happen. Not saying that I am 100% positive that all hauntings are “just in peoples minds”, but as an investigator and four years of watching a “rumor” spread into a full fledged haunting is enough to convince me (a believer) that not all hauntings are what we want them to be. If you wish hard enough, you will eventually see “ghosts”, just like the kids at South East High School.

Some investigators will spend countless hours in one location in hopes of one day of “getting proof” of the afterlife, or even a “ghost”. So wouldn’t it be easier and less time consuming to hold a strong assumption that the location is “haunted”? 

   The truth is, most proof can be explained away by technology and common sense. Wishful thinking, returning to the same locations over and over again, will never make the hauntings more active or even productive with science in mind. Is the location really haunted? We will never know, because there is no proof being presented to anyone. Going in believing in your heart and mind that a location is the most “haunted” location in history while applying a little dab of hysteria, chances are, you will get what you ask for…that would be some great “ghost action” and unexplainable events during your investigation.  At the time, we have no desire to “investigate” SE High School, because its not needed. This haunting could happen anywhere you want it. As an investigator, I have seen my fair share of unexplainable events over the years. I have even seen a handful of full-blown apparitions. Learning that it still is not proof of a haunting. At the time, I believed it was proof because that is how I perceived it. The brain is a sneaky thing. The term “The mind can play tricks on a person” is a very realistic cliché that people should pay more attention to, especially while investigating the paranormal.

I will not to go into the scientific aspect of an “invented haunting”. I will leave that up to other people who thrive on that type of research. I feel this is a simple theory that does not need to be over analyzed. As someone who openly admits to being distant from the science & tech knowledge of investigating, I will confess that a 4-year legend at a local high school has changed the way my team and I are investigating ghosts and the unknown today, not gizmo’s and gadgets.

We are in hopes wit this 4-year project that it will open the eyes of other teams and ask them to start paying attention to possibility of an invented haunting.

One more thing… My niece graduated 9^th in her class in May 2005. She completed school being on the Nations Honor Roll and has been offered several scholarships for academic achievements. She will be attending UCO this fall. Thank you Tawny, and thanks to all the kids at S.E high school that unknowingly participated in this little experiment.

 – Tonya Hacker 

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