“Old School” by alamosbasement   

Doors slamming, chairs rocking, footsteps falling none of these things are out of the ordinary until you add in the fact that they were all done with seemingly no people. One in every five adults claim they have seen a ghost according to a  2009 Pew Research Center survey. Most people’s minds do not jump to schools when they think of haunted place but in fact schools are among the most commonly haunted place along with hospitals, funeral homes, hotels, prisons, and theaters according to Ghostsstory.com. The reason so many schools are haunted is because a large number of schools have experienced tragic events occur that attract ghosts. The following are the stories of eight schools in Minnesota where paranormal activity is a regular occurrence. General information about individual schools and hauntings provided by Shadowlands Haunted Places Index.

 Aurora High School-Aurora

Aurora high school was built in 1972,and in 1977 there was a horrible fire at the school. At the time of the fire the fire alarms were pulled via kids running through the halls pulling the alarms as they went, which is many lives were lost in the fire. Several people have claimed to have seen two teen boys walking on the third floor of the school yelling and there have also been sightings of a girl on the second floor crying for someone to help her.

The University of Minnesota- Minneapolis

The washington ave. bridge connects the West bank and the East bank Which have separate portions of the campus. There have been several suicides off the bridge over the years mostly committed by students due to all there pressure. There have been several reports made by people walking late at night hearing footsteps falling them as they walk by the bridge. One such report was made by a young man on Snops.com site. “I was on the bridge at about 5:40am walking to work, when I saw a man walking towards me on the bridge. He was the only other person on it with me. As I got closer to where the man was, he vanished before my eyes, and where I stood suddenly became very cold. After that, I bolted out of their and got to my job.”

U of M (Washington Ave) Bridge and Weisman Art Museum by Dan_H

Null Hall Morehead State University-MoorHead

According to Trail Blazer Morehead’s official newspaper are there Rumors floating around campus about the “ghost of Nunn Hall” The site also tells the story of a young woman named Dora Deloris Ball. She was reportedly visiting a friend who lived in Null Hall on Oct. 14, 1971. She was there only  a few minutes when she fell out of an upper-floor window, landing on the roof of the lobby dying instantly. A Junior and former resident of Null reports experiencing paranormal activity well there last summer.He said “lights would turn on and things moved around.” Another report was made by Sophomore Amanda Charles. Amanda feels a “creepy” presence when she is alone in the elevator and also said “things would move out of place.”

Duluth Central High School-Duluth

 In the 1970´s a girl was raped in the girls bathroom by an unknown assailant. After the fear he would attack again got too much for her to handle she killed  herself in her house three days before she was supposed to graduate. Ever since the day the girl killed herself people have reported hearing someone moaning and seeing bloody fingerprints on the mirror. Custodians who have worked at the school have also claimed to have found papers with the girls name on them.

St.Olaf College-Northfield

There have been several sightings of the ¨Red Hat Boy¨ who is said to be the ghost of a boy who died, not on the campus itself but who attend the school. Sometimes people even see the boys pet dog following him around. And on rare occasions people see him in a dorm room that some believe was his. One girl described her experience with the ghost on the school’s online paper the Manitou Messenger  “I heard [a] CRACK followed b a whimper[…] I grimaced and hurried away but in my rush I ran right into someone […] I spun around […] but discovered the hallway to be completely empty.”

Melby Hall – St. Olaf College by Michael Banks

North Shoemacker Hall-St.Cloud

North Shoemaker hall was built in the early part of the 1900 hundreds. There is a story at the school that claims one of the lunch ladies hanged herself in the meat locker after having an affair and becoming pregnant. Many of the managers in the kitchen have made reports of hearing strange sounds coming from inside the building.The same people also say the door to the locker will unlock by itself after it gets locked by employees. One girl who lived in North Shoemacker posted the following on Ghostplace.com “At night at about 3am the door wood open and close when no one was around and you always felt that someone was watching you. I felt like I was going crazy.”

Willow Lane Elementary-White Bear Lake

Two boys at the school claim to have seen a figure in black running alongside the swamp located next to the school and at the same time hearing a young girl screaming. In a separate incident a group a children seen the ghost of a young boy who was murdered standing in the bathroom where he was murdered alone during a blackout.

Winona State College-Winona

The fourth floor of the school used to be an infirmary for the resident nuns. There for many people have died there, and it is said that their spirits remain there crying out in pain or walking around. Some former students of the posted on The Winonan the school’s online newspaper writing, “We’d get this feeling of someone else being there,[…]like someone was in the room watching you.”

Infirmary at a school by Sharon Sperry Bloom