Background Information

Have you ever heard a classic ghost story? Well, America has millions of them. Stories of lingering spirits roaming freely through halls, hotels, even penitentiaries. There are many places that are haunted throughout the United States. There are many reasons why a place might be haunted. Often claims of ghosts circulate based on people who have died on a property, or a place where a person may have been mistreated, or where people have been killed, or victims that have died in a building through a natural phenonomen such as a fire, earthquake, etc. 

The Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania still stands today as a historical landmark.Their history museum is open every day from 10am-5pm, and the former prison is used as a haunted house each October. This is one of Pennslyvania’s famous haunted sites. It appears as a decaying castle structure, but behind this old and spooky building are 142 years of history that include people who suffered from madness, and disease and who were accused of horrendous crimes. This place held thousands of hard core criminals. People have reported that they’ve experienced the following paranormal events: disembodied laughter, shadowy figures, pacing footsteps, and a man standing in the guard tower that can’t be accessed today due to the stone stairs that are said to have crumbled away for years now.

Encounters

My encounter with a ghost took place after school in the Mac Lab on September 8, 2021. We, Carlie and I (Sania), were just finishing up with our journalism assignment. Carlie went downstairs to grab something and I was busy doing my work. I felt someone come in the room and leave, but I didn’t turn around. A few seconds later, I saw a person running back and forth from the iMac next to me. Since the screen of the iMac was black, I knew it was not something playing on the screen. This apparition, a young child, was 4 feet 2 inches and running around behind me. I turned around and started looking everywhere, two seconds later, Carlie came in. I asked her if it was her and she said, “What are you talking about?”

We downloaded an app called, “Ghost Detector Radar Camera”, an app made by Spirit Box . We started checking for ghosts in the Mac lab first and it detected a spirit where I was sitting. Carlie and I ran out of the room as fast as we could! We then went to the second floor bathroom. Once inside the bathroom, the app showed a skeleton that was near the ceiling and then it vanished. Our heart dropped and we ran out of there running for our lives. We still weren’t quite done with our adventure, so we went to the third floor bathroom that has the bathtub in it. We didn’t even need to enter the bathroom. By the door, we saw a man’s head chopped off and he was holding his head in his left hand. We again ran from there and decided to leave school. We came back to the Mac lab to get our stuff and we found three yearbooks from different years place on the side of where I sit, which wasn’t there before.

We asked several teachers, who were alums of Regina, about how they feel about ghosts and what paranormal things they’ve experienced. Mrs. McCann-Hoyt  and Ms. Tully have not experienced any paranormal activities. However, Mrs. Allworth, Assistant Principal and also an alum, and Mrs. McNulty, Database Coordinator & Advancement Services and also an alum, have witnessed paranormal activity. 

Mrs. Allworth states, “I did have a strange encounter during college when I was a student studying abroad. The college was in a former castle, which was a country home for Henry VIII and his second wife Anne Boleyn. Although Anne was beheaded in the Tower of London, her “ghost” was rumored to walk the grounds of the college. One night when my friend and I were returning to the campus, we saw a weird patch of fog down a path next to the castle. It was in the shape of a person, standing upright, and just in one section of this path.  Of course, it freaked us out! Forty years later, we still talk about our encounter with Anne Boleyn’s “ghost.””

Mrs. McNulty says, “Well…umm…my husband, when he was young, his mom died when he was 10. And he would go out to the cemetery, Sacred Heart Cemetery, and he and his friend, late at night, would leave a tape recorder. Umm..and they sit quietly and when they go home, they would play it. He believed he could hear sounds and talking. I don’t believe in it and then we bought a house, in Northbrook, and my son and his friend were renting it from us, and they swear it was haunted.”

Ms.McCann, however, has not experienced any paranormal activity but she says, “I mean if somebody else tells me a story, I wouldn’t really care. I wouldn’t watch a movie about ghosts or scary things and I hope not to encounter one. But if someone else tells me a story, I’m fine with that.” 

Regina faculty have not experienced any paranormal activity inside of Regina. However, several did encounter a few outside, such as, going to the cemetery and hearing voices in a tape recording or even seeing a fog shaped as a person standing upright or seeing the ghost of Abraham Lincoln running swiftly across a backyard.

People who have used the ghost app, rate it very generously. “We ended up finding a ghost that follows the same exact details like age, relationship status, where she lives, name, name, and gender as the previous owner of her house” said someone on app store reviews.

According to YouGov, over 40% of Americans believe in supernatural beings, including ghosts. Ghosts and Gravestones tell us that we seek answers for what we don’t understand, and when those answers aren’t found, we assume the supernatural are behind it. This source also said people seek out ghosts because they like the thrill. Maybe not the thrill of a poltergeist slamming your bedroom door shut, but perhaps the happenings like patches of fog or someone touching your shoulder, but no one is there.