Urban Legends

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 on 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 haunting. 

I collected known ghost stories of schools and universities which I considered an urban legend. I didn't intend to tell the readers that this 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 at 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.