Is there a Ghost in Schools?

Actually, it is normal for schools to be rumored haunted, especially in the Philippines. When you ask a certain pupil in a primary school and/or student in a secondary or tertiary school if there is a ghost in their campus, almost all of them will affirmatively answer you YES. If not yes, they may just tell you, "They said there was, but I don't know if it was really true." I remembered when I was in my elementary times, our school was rumored to be once a cemetery, and was dumped with cement and/or soil to hide the whole graveyard. Of course, because we were kids we definitely believed the rumor without evidence.

In the other hand, University of the Philippines is not alone for being a rumored haunted school, but also the other universities in the Philippines. The truth is, the oldest the school is, the haunted they will see it. UST, DLSU, and ADMU are also rumored of ghosts hauntings. UST, as the oldest of them, is the most told to be a place for ghost hunting.

I collected known ghost stories of schools and universities which I considered an urban legend. I didn't intend to tell the readers that these stories (below) are not true. As what I said in my introduction, urban legends may originate from true and credible event which brought to more exaggerated stories.

So, here's the stories:

Stories

[Taken from Internet:]

The setting: An evening class at De La Salle – College of St. Benilde In attendance: A professor, his students, and a creepy girl The tale: It was the first day of the semester, and the professor called out the roll, trying to match each of his students' faces to their names. When he had finished, he noticed that there was one person who had not been called: the girl dressed in a white shirt and jeans sitting in the front row directly across his desk. He asked for her form to check if she was enrolled in that class, but she stared up at him blankly. He repeated his question and watched – along with the entire class – as the girl stood up and walked past him, straight through the blackboard. Take note: Though there are many variations to this tale, the scariest thing about it is that there was nothing to suspect about the girl at first, until she actually walked through the blackboard. Imagine that happening on your first day of school! The setting: The Chapel of the Most Blessed Sacrament, De La Salle University In attendance: The restless souls of murdered La Sallian brothers The tale: Many a ghost story has been set in the La Salle Chapel, but among the most harrowing tales is the one about a girl who decided to enjoy some meditative quiet time there. After several minutes of sitting with her eyes closed and breathing evenly, she opened her eyes to see a shadowy figure in the middle of the chapel, moving very slowly towards her. She closed her eyes again and tried to utter a prayer while frozen in fear. But when she opened her eyes, she found that the figure had materialized completely: it was a priest with a bayonet in his gut and bullet wounds in his forehead. Take note: The scariest thing about the La Salle Chapel ghost stories? Their origins are factual. During World War II, 16 Brothers and several families took refuge in the Chapel. All the Brothers and 25 of the civilians were massacred by Japanese soldiers. The school's official website even gives a date: Feb. 12, 1945. The setting: Class 2G's room, La Salle Greenhills In attendance: The entire class 2G, their adviser and a little boy sitting in The tale: The class had been experiencing strange things in their room for a while–objects were rearranged; televisions unexpectedly shut down; computers misbehaved. Tired of being toyed with, the class decided to set up video surveillance to record what happened in the room at night. Only after a week of this did they find the cause of their troubles: in the recording, they saw a little boy around five years old limp into the classroom, circling it as if looking for something. He then disappeared in the video, only to return a second later–walking upside down, all the while approaching the camera lens. Some say that the doors slammed shut and the television and computer both fizzled out. They had to call in a technician to fix the appliances, but the students were all unharmed afterwards. Take note: It's rumored that to this day, the subsequent classes who take on the section “2G” still experience peculiar things. The setting: A bathroom in Miriam College High School In attendance: Four classmates, more or less The tale: After their classes ended late, three friends went to the bathroom together. When three of them had emerged from the cubicles, another classmate entered the bathroom and greeted them. As the fourth girl was in the cubicle, the three decided to play a prank on her. They locked the bathroom and stood outside. In a moment, they felt the doorknob rattle and heard their classmate knocking and asking to be let out. They laughed and teased her as she begged them to open the door. When she started crying and howling at them to unlock the door, the three felt guilty and gave in. They opened the door to find no one in the bathroom. Again and again they called their friend's name, but no one responded. Spooked, the three ran to the lanai. They found the fourth girl there, who was surprised when they demanded to know where she had gone. “Kanina pa ako dito,” she said. She hadn't gone to the bathroom at all. Take note: Bathrooms seem to be an especially prominent setting in ghost stories from all-girls schools. Often, these are haunted by nuns, creepy cubicle occupants, delinquent reflections and–in another story from this school–a ghostly head in the toilet. The setting: The “black garden” behind the chapel, St. Pedro Poveda College In attendance: Ursula The tale: Ursula is more than just a ghost story in this school; for young Povedans moving from primary grade school to intermediate grade school, she's a rite of passage. Her spirit reportedly haunts the “black garden” behind the school chapel, where she supposedly killed herself. The accounts as to how she did it vary: some say she hanged herself from the big tree, others say she drowned herself in the garden's well. Whatever the method and the reason, the challenge is to cross the garden's walkway without looking back. If you do look back, it is said Ursula–a girl in her early adolescent years with long, wavy hair–will supposedly appear to you. What she will do with you is left to the imagination. Take note: Ursula is ubiquitous in Poveda ghostlore, to the point that other hauntings and ghost stories are also “attributed' to her. The setting: A classroom in St. Paul College, Pasig In attendance: Two girls The tale: While waiting for her sundo, a high school girl decided to stroll the hallways after classes had ended. She passed a classroom where she sighted a lone student scribbling on the blackboard. She thought that, from the back, the student looked like a friend of hers, so she drew close to the classroom door. She gasped in fear when she realized that the student was floating a few inches off the ground. The noise made the student turn around, showing the girl its blank, featureless face and its handiwork on the blackboard: written in large, scratchy black letters were the words, “HELP, I'M IN HELL.” Take note: In some versions of this story, the stranger in the classroom is not a student, but a faceless nun. The setting: The physics lab bathroom in St. Scholastica's College, Manila In attendance: A girl and something no one would want in the bathroom with them The tale: One student wanted privacy while conducting her bathroom business, so she checked into a rarely frequented bathroom beside the physics laboratory. All the other stalls were empty when she came in, and she had heard no one enter, so she was surprised to find a pair of black shoes standing outside her cubicle door. They stood there, perfectly still, seemingly waiting for her to finish, even while the other cubicles were unoccupied. Slightly unsettled, the girl looked away from the shoes, shifting her vision upwards–only to find that a freakishly tall and ghostly nun was leaning on top of the cubicle door, leering at her with a sinister smile. Take note: Whether or not the story is true, students from this school will agree that the bathroom beside the physics lab is truly unsettling: it has no mirrors, even though marks on the tile walls indicate mirrors had once hung there. The setting: An Ikot jeep in the University of the Philippines Diliman In attendance: The jeepney driver and the last passenger The tale: A trip in the iconic Ikot takes a turn for the terrifying in this story. A girl boarded a jeepney late at night, bound for one of the campus dorms. The driver said nothing when she told him her stop, but only met her eyes once in the rearview mirror. They trundled through the dark and silent campus, but the route he took was not one she could recognize. Afraid for her safety, she was wary throughout the ride until the jeepney made a turn, and she found herself just across the street from her dormitory. Mildly shaken, she hurried to leave the jeep, but the driver stopped her, telling her that as soon as she got home, she should take off her clothes and burn them. He explained that he took a detour to ward off the evil spirit that must have been following her. “Pagtingin ko kasi kanina sa salamin,” (As I looked at the mirror,) he said, “wala kang ulo.” (you don't have a head.) Take note: The jeepneys that ply the campus even late at night are perfect settings for stories about ghostly hitchhikers. In the UP campus, these jeepneys follow a specific color code: yellow roofs for the Ikot and Toki, red roofs for the Katipunan, blue roofs for those bound for SM North, and green roofs for those bound for Philcoa and Pantranco. If you find yourself in UP at a late hour and see a jeepney approaching, make sure it's one of those colors. Otherwise, walk away. Very quickly. And don't turn around. [Click Here for more] The setting: The UST hospital morgue In attendance: A resident and a dead body or two The tale: A UST doctor decided to ride the elevator down to the hospital morgue. There was only one other passenger inside. Noticing a patient trying to catch the lift, the doctor immediately shut the door. The other passenger asked her why she refused to wait for the patient. She explained that the “patient” was wearing a red band on his wrist and she'd been warned that only corpses wore such bands. The passenger approached him and lifted his arm. “Tulad nito?” (Like this?) he asked, showing the crimson tag dangling from his wrist. Take note: Four hundred years old, and just plain old, the University of Santo Tomas is an easy target for ghost stories. In a 2006 article in the Varsitarian, History professor Jose Victor Torres explained that thousands of people have died in the University through the years—even before the campus was built. Other reported ghostly areas include the main building, Benavidez Park, and the Ossarium (a storage area for bones in the med building). As for the corpse trying to catch the elevator? Well, he was just trying to hitch a ride to his home—the morgue. Perfectly understandable. [Click Here for more] The setting: The old Communications Department, Ateneo de Manila University In attendace: A janitor, a security guard and a really mischievous something The tale: The janitor, who had just finished cleaning the bathrooms, was about to lock up the building when a security guard asked if he could go inside to urinate. The janitor agreed and let the guard in. Minutes later, when the guard emerged, the janitor double-checked the second floor bathroom–and was met with the sight of the tile walls and floors covered in streaky handprints of human excrement. He ran back downstairs to confront the security guard, who was absolutely clueless. When the security guard turned to leave, the janitor was shocked to find another handprint, clearly pressed on the back of the guard's white uniform. Take note: The Comm Dept. is rumored to be Ateneo's most haunted building, but most of the classes here have been moved to the newer Social Sciences building. [Click Here for more]

[Taken from Internet:]

Ateneo de Davao (Jacinto) - Just like the Matina campus, ghostly stories abound at the Jacinto campus. And one of this is a hair-raising tale narrated by a former law student in the 1980s. The student was a member of a law school fraternity. One late night while conducting their initiation rites inside the campus he happened to stray near the covered court, stooping down low to fix his shoelaces he noticed a priest garbed in a cloak, walking towards him, he could hear the priests’ walking cane. He greeted “good evening Father.” Expecting a friendly reply, but there were none, only a ghostly silence and the sound of the cane, raising his head to take a better look the priest he was surprised that the figure was not walking but actually floating. Ateneo de Davao (Matina) - Ateneo is a sprawling campus which makes it a fodder for many ghost stories, ever since in grade school until high school the eerie stuff I heard could just fill a book. Before the school was built, the place was then a Japanese Airfield in World War 2. Hence, stories are rife about ghosts of Japanese soldiers and one tale includes a security guard on night detail who heard a telephone ringing (in the old - now demolished wooden building, there was a telephone which students often used to call up their sundo) the guard answered and the voice on the other line was a man muttering in language that somewhat resembled Nippongo. There are many eerie stories like apparitions at a statue (forgot the name) near the old grade school chapel. In high school, some classrooms are said to be haunted by the spirits of departed students. In some Acacia trees inside the campus, live some friendly dwarves who occasionally appear in groups of people. But I haven’t experienced any supernatural in my long schooling in Matina. Some of these stories have become urban legends.

[Taken from Internet:]

ADAMSON UNIVERSITY A girl was by the sink washing her face when she looked in the mirror and saw the drops of water on her face not as what they really are but as a drop of blood. And at her back, there was a headless man in soldier's uniform.Every year, students would encounter various but similarly scary experiences in that toilet. According to my research, the St. Vincent de Paul building, where the toilet is, is the oldest building of Adamson University and was used as an execution station by the Japanese army during World War II. Rumor has it hat countless number of heads had been chopped off in the toilet itself. - OSC Arnel B. Tablizo Jr. COLLEGE OF SAINT BENILDE It happened few years ago in College of Saint Benilde. In an early morning class, a girl in black dress entered room M-409 where a class was ongoing. The class didn't mind the girl thinking that she was only sitting in. Suddenly, in the middle of the teacher's lecture, the girl stood up, walked towards the front wall and, to the awe of everyone, vanished. Until now that ghost story still scares students who take classes in the said room. - OSC Neptali Esguerra DE LA SALLE UNIVERSITY One day last February, even before the 7am classes started, a young Accounting sophomore decided to drop by the St. La Salle Chapel to say a quick prayer for her accounting exam. She reached the empty chapel, went to the very first pew, knelt down, and with eyes shut, began to pray. A few minutes later, she heard a shuffling sound and frantic footsteps. The student opened her eyes and saw a limping, pale-faced man reaching out towards her, his torn clothes covered in blood, a bayonet sticking in his chest and mouthing the words, "Help me..." -OSC Paolo Gamboa *DLSU Main building was used as a bomb shelter during World War II FEATI UNIVERSITY At 10 pm one night, one ROTC cadet was relieving himself in one of the comfort rooms on the third floor of the Paterno building when he unmistakably made out the figure of a woman dressed in white floating in the air. The vision made him scream in intense fright, catching the attention of his other companions. Upon their arrival, they witnessed the same lady hovering in the air. It was seven in the evening at another instance, when a janitor getting ready to go home noticed a mysterious lady enter one of the restrooms at the third floor. He followed the lady to warn her that the part of building was strictly prohibited. He entered the restroom and saw no one there. According to stories, the Paterno Building, which had existed even before the eruption of World War II, was used as a garrison by the Japanese during the war. MINDANAO STATE UNIVERSITY When graduation time is near, the Princess Lawan Bae all (PLBH) dorm residents can usually hear footsteps in the hallway, hough no one is there. The old janitress says they are seniors who committed suicide after finding out that they were pregnant. One restroom cubicle in the dorm has been closed since residents claim feeling unexplainable, eerie sensations when they use it. It is said that one of the students performed self-abortion and died inside that cubicle. It has been 8 years now, but it remains closed. - OSC Ritchel Gabutin NUEVA ECIJA UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY A lovelorn spirit on our campus possessed a high school freshman girl a few months back. She would often see the "guy" standing near a Balete tree at the back of our campus' HS building. She would say that when Allen (the guy or spirit's name) enters her body he would tour her around the campus and tell her that she looks so much like his dead girlfriend. The girl now goes to a new school and words have it that Allen did not bother her anymore. -OSC Joyce Enriquez POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES "She was once there and she never left," according to one housekeeper of PUP Jasmin hostel, reluctant to tell the exact room number of the so-called "haunted room." Residents of the hostel reveal that every time they pass through the corridor during late afternoon and early in the morning, they could hear murmurs and cries coming from the haunted room. Stories say that a female nursing board examinee committed suicide inside the room. Many have had experiences seeing her walking in her nursing uniform in the middle of the night or appearing in bathroom mirrors - with blood on her face. She also loves to knock on the door and if one opens, he would find no one but sense an eerie feeling. Residents believe that once you open the door, she comes in the room, so they advise not to open the door.- OSC Jonizel Lagunzad TRINITY COLLEGE In one of their overnight press work, the section editor decided to take a rest and went out of the editorial board cubicle. Suddenly, he heard the tick-tack of the keyboards as if someone was typing. Knowing that he was all alone, he decided to look if somebody was using the computer. To his surprise, he saw the name Jackie repeatedly typed on the screen. The keyboard continued to tick-tack until the screen was filled with the name Jackie. While the news editor was encoding his article, someone said "hello" to him.When he looked around, a pretty girl approached him and again whispered "hello." All of a sudden, the girl disappeared.Dian, our present culture editor, who has a third eye, said that she was able to talk to Jackie. Jackie later on revealed that her real name is Patricia. Jackie revealed that she's always around since she finds the office peaceful. She also claimed that our office was then a park with a well and benches. According to Dian, Patricia (or Jackie) is a Spanish looking lady, with fair complexion, stands 5'5" and looks like a doll.- OSC Meryl Pecache ST. SCHOLASTICA'S COLLEGE A group of high school girls had a play in the Little Theater. They took shots of them and when the film was developed, a nun was with them during the curtain call. The nun had no face, floating, tip-toed, and her hands were clasped as though in prayer. He hands were pointed downwards and her head was cracked as though she had been hanged! - OSC Anthea Lamigo UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES - Los Banos Baker Hall: There was a group of guys who passed by Baker Hall and noticed that there was a party going on. Everybody was dressed like they were in the'80s era. They had such a great time that they wanted to invite their other friends along. So, out they went and when they came back, Baker Hall was as quiet and as dark as the night. - OSC Ria Henares UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS The weird and eerie experience happened two years ago when I was facilitating a retreat (Days with the Lord) in Don Bosco Technical College Mandaluyong. The session that night almost finished before midnight; my co-facilitators and I were heading off to our sleeping quarters when one of them told us that he was going to introduce someone and we asked, "Who?" He said meet "Puti," but I couldn't see anyone! He then asked me to raise my arms just in front of where I was and it suddenly felt freezing cold. I immediately ran to the sleeping quarters and left them. The following day, I learned that they were able to talk to "Puti," a young and playful kid who was shot in the middle of an encounter during the war. He continues to haunt the old Dona Cecilia corridors and manifests himself through a white silhouette as described by the security guards who would often see him play at night. - Cedric Ira A. Aquino URIOS COLLEGE It happened a few years back. An old male college teacher was seen eating alone in a corner during a College Faculty luncheon. Some teachers who saw him attested that he looked a bit strange and unusually quiet. They invited him to join their group discussion, but he just gave them a blank stare. After a while, he just disappeared and nobody noticed him go out of the room. The bizarre thing about it is that this certain teacher was already in the hospital slumped on his deathbed at that very same moment. A few hours later, he was dead. When his desk was cleaned by his fellow teacher a few days after his death, the teacher was so shocked to find a note personally addressed to her, thanking her for everything. - OSC Owen Jaen

Source:
http://www.spot.ph/gallery/1693/10-scary-stories-set-in-manila-schools-65279-/article/49643#pid=27637,27638,27639,27640,27641,27642,27643,27644,27645,27679
http://pudol.multiply.com/journal/item/1/ten_haunted_places_in_Davao_City
http://pinoy-horror-stories.blogspot.com/2011/06/philippine-universities-and-colleges.html
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