Scary Stories. Beloved tales that we pull out of our pockets in hopes of giving those around us a good “spook”. 

These stories are exciting and entertaining, partially because of the thrill of them, but mostly because of how unrealistic they may seem. We are, mostly, protected from the haunts in these classic fables. But all of this pumpkin carving and candy-eating begs the question: Are there any ghosts at Bearden? 

In hopes of finding a scary story to tell this year, The Bark leadership gave me the green light to go on a hunt to see if any faculty members have ever encountered a ghost or haunt right here at Bearden High School. 

However, after interviewing around 20 teachers and staff members at Bearden, I had nothing. It seemed as though there was no faculty unlucky enough to have been greeted by a local haunt. This was until I interviewed science teacher Mrs. Tonya Henke.

Mrs. Henke reported that she had never directly seen a ghost herself, but that there was a ghost in the building. Allegedly, late at night when the school is clear of students, there is a strange noise that can be heard from the back of the West Mall Commons. In the far left corner of the cafeteria, there is a soft shrieking sound, almost like a cry or a whimper.

“They say, late at night, occasionally you will hear cries,” Mrs. Henke said. “I don’t know what kind of cries, but you will hear cries coming from the Cafeteria and West Mall areas.” 

Yet, that is not where the hauntings stop. Librarian Mrs. Kristen Heffern told of a spooky phenomenon in the library.

“So sometimes when Mrs. Davis and I are at the library circulation desk, books will fall on their own,” Mrs. Heffern said. 

She described how, oftentimes, the books on the display shelves in the front of the library will fly off all by themselves, mostly when there are no students around. Mrs. Heffern said that this could be because they are not positioned the traditional way that a library book would be; however, it is odd how they seem to launch themselves onto the floor.

There have been students as well who have managed to catch this sight, and all agree it is a chilling occurrence. 

“There is no rumbling of the ground,” Mrs. Heffern said. “They just pop off the shelf.”

Additionally, theatre teacher Ms. Katie Alley told maybe the most haunting story. Theatres are stereotypically haunted places, and many auditoriums still practice the ritual of keeping a “ghost light” on. A ghost light is a lamp that stays on the stage of a theatre to keep ghosts from tampering with any part of a play or musical.

Ms. Alley did not talk about a ghost light, but a ghost that was in her light.

“It was really, really weird and glitchy, almost ‘Stranger-Things-ish,’” Ms. Alley described. 

Fortunately, Ms. Alley had a video of the occurrence. The glitching and flashing of the lights are truly indescribable. It is not like the standard electricity glitch that we see everyday.

The lights started incessantly flickering, and it went on for over 30 minutes. Oddly enough, this flashing has never happened outside of that one event, and Ms. Alley does not know what could have caused it, if not spirits in the air.

So, the next time you are overtaken by a spooky feeling or you get a chill for no reason while at Bearden, especially as we creep closer to Halloween, it’s probably an unbalanced book or a faulty wire. But just for fun, don’t discount that it could be a school spirit of a different kind.