Witch Psych

One of my curious pastimes is to look for ghost stories in my hometown. I am a curator of oddities, after all. When I attended Redondo Union High School, I remember feeling an indescribable “something” in the library. I also remember how “different” the auditorium felt. More recently, I visited the auditorium as an adult, and it still felt like something was there.

Redondo Union High School (RUHS) was established in 1905. The first classes were allegedly held in the Masonic temple before the campus was built. The science building was built in 1939. It was the only high school in town till Aviation High School was built (1957), and once again became the only high school in 1982. There have been some quite notable students over its 120 years in existence. Most people know of Demi Moore, who briefly attended, and an attempted presidential assassin and a Manson family member, Squeaky Fromme. Two students have seemingly never left, though: Jake and Harold.

Harold, as the librarian calls him, is a prankster-type ghost (Takahashi 2021). He is the source of mysterious footsteps, too. When I went there in the mid-2000s, I don’t remember him having a name. To find more information about Harold, I had to turn to Reddit and Reddit gave me absolutely nothing.

Jake the ghost has little more information than Harold. As the story goes, he allegedly died in the auditorium somewhere around 1940. However, the stories I come across tend to change the year. One article I found from our local community college stated that Jake was in love with a girl whose boyfriend was a soldier in WWII, and upon the boyfriend’s return, Jake was beaten to death by him (McGill 2023). There is no record of a student by that name during that period, so we don’t know for sure. Also, I can’t find any mention of anyone (besides Jake) who has died in the auditorium.

There was one mayor who had his funeral service there, but he died somewhere else and I can’t remember which mayor it was.

“Unexplainable missing keys is the least of Jakes spook. Many students have seen outlines of figures or quick movements across the window of the lightroom and behind the spotlight. The vivid image of someone behind the seat of the spotlight has students checking if anyone is up there, but there never is. Melissa Staab, drama teacher, can also attest to supernatural occurrences in the light room.” (Riss 2021).

It was more likely that an enthusiastic staff member or other former students haunted the place. Sometimes, these tales go through the “telephone game” process, and they get changed. Something else gets added to the story every time someone new tells it.

I should probably get back to my homework now before I find something else for my ADHD to run wild on.

References

McGill, K. (2023 June 19). Top 5 haunted places close to ECC: from downtown L.A. to the South Bay, here’s where you are most likely to encounter a ghost. https://eccunion.com/warrior-life/2023/06/19/top-5-haunted-places-close-to-ecc-from-downtown-l-a-to-the-south-bay-heres-where-you-are-most-likely-to-encounter-a-ghost/

Riss, R. (2021 October 31). Jake the theatre ghost. https://ruhsmedia.com/2021/10/who-haunts-us-ghost-stories-from-ruhs/

Takahashi, E. (2021 October 31). Harold the library ghost. https://ruhsmedia.com/2021/10/who-haunts-us-ghost-stories-from-ruhs/