10 Benson Gazette October 2013

BENSON’S URBAN LEGENDSBY JEREMY DAVIS,

LUIS CISNEROS, CHRISTOPHER

JOHANNES, AND JOHNAYZ

CARSTENS

11 Benson Gazette October 2013

BENSON’S URBAN LEGENDSHave you ever walked down a dark or empty corridor and felt like

there was someone behind you, but the minute you turn around there is nothing there?

Have you been in the auditorium and felt like there was a sadness or anger that overcomes you and makes you feel uncomfortable? The truth is there just might be a spirit here who is fol-lowing you. If you haven’t heard, there are those who say Benson has its very own ghosts, and

CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE

BY JEREMY DAVIS, LUIS CISNEROS,

CHRISTOPHER JOHANNES,

AND JOHNAYZ CARSTENS

12 Benson Gazette October 2013

these spirits may still be here today, following us around or listening

to us from a corner in the auditorium. We may not be able to see them or even hear them, but if you believe the stories, they can see and hear us.

Every year it seems we hear about the urban legends of Benson, and so this issue, Gazette reporters Jeremy Davis, Luis Cisneros, Christopher Johannes, and Johnayz Carstens went off to dis-cover the truth behind Mary’s Corner, the Underground Tunnels, and the Cu-pola. We asked the teachers and went on our own discovery to see what we could find about the myths that students whis-per to themselves every year around this time.

At the beginning we did not know who to ask, so we started with Mr. Ol-son. He told us to talk to the teachers that have been here the longest, mean-ing we would need to talk to Mark Mei-er, the human growth teacher, and Astra Patterson, the art teacher.

They did not say a whole lot, but they gave us enough information and told us how to get more info. We talked to Eri-enne Wredt, the drama teacher, about Mary’s Corner because it is in the audi-torium. We also spoke to Marissa Bal-dozier who had experienced two events while in the auditorium. We also spoke to Troy Travis, the security guard who went to Benson and knows all sorts of school secrets.

We spoke to Meier about the Cupola and he said, “This is what you need to

remember. There are places that our building engineers have to get to and there are something I call ‘rooms’ that you go up to repair wires and such.”

Meier also told us, “I heard that the teach-ers before me, that are now retired, used to say there’s different stuff go-ing on here.”

When questioned about the tunnels, Meier didn’t want to say too much, but he did con-firm that he has been under ground Benson.

“There are rooms where, like, other peo-ple haven’t been into that I’ve been into that I probably shouldn’t have been into, but I’ve been into them.”

Meier also hinted that there are other strange rooms in the school that most people have never seen.

“There’s like clos-ets and storage places that are kind of bizarre and you can find weird things.”

What kind of weird things? “There are Class-rooms with doors [that lead] out of them and next to them, to get to various places,” Meier said.

Meier said, “But I’ve been into one that was so dark that you can’t see, so you cannot go in.”

While Meier wouldn’t say it was a anything paranormal, he did say that he felt “an abandoned-like feeling.”

“There are places you walk by every-day that lead to the underground tun-nels which leads into a hallway so it’s kind of wild,” Meier said.

“You mean paranormal?” Gazette reporter Christopher Johannes asked, making Meier chuckle. “I mean I’ve seen some really weird stuff and experienced stuff.”

The next stop in our investigation was Mrs. Patterson’s class, up in the art de-partment. Patterson, one of the longest-serving Benson staff members, said that she’s seen some of Benson’s legendary places first-hand.

“I have been in the tunnels, I was just down there to see what was going on and I didn’t like it either.”

Patter said she didn’t go down there

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SOURCE / ABOUT.COM GRAPHIC / LUIS CISNEROS

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MYTHBUSTERS ON PATROL Editory-in-cheif Jeremy Davis follows In-depth editor Jonathan Carstens up the spiral staircase that leads towad Mary’s Corner in the au-ditorium (left). Art teacher Astra Patterson has been inside the Benson tunnels and says she doesn’t care to go back there agin (right).

13 Benson Gazette October 2013

much more after that. “Not that any-thing ever happened. I never heard any-thing terrible happening. It’s the living, they’re the dangerous ones.”

When asked if she believes in the un-known, Patterson said she is more of a real-ist. “Yeah I’m a skeptic I don’t believe in ghosts,” Patterson said.

When asked about Mary’s Corner, the leg-endary place in the au-diorium from where Benson ex-Principal Mary McNamara haunts the school, Patterson said she had heard a lot of rumors.

“From what I’ve heard, she was quite a legend around here, but she was here before my time.”

We Interviewed Ma-rissa Baldozier, who has had a couple run-ins with the ghost. “I have had two encoun-ters with Mary, one was when I went down into her corner with a few of my friends, Cornelius Rhone, Austin Tracy, and John Stoops,” said Baldozier.

“We were down in the corner and we all heard something move and we all saw a face and then

Cornelius trampled John to get out the door.”

In Baldozier’s next incident she came away with what could be physical evi-dence that the legend is true.

“The other time,” Baldozier said, “I went into the guy’s dressing room to get my book bag and I came out and was walking down the back hallway and my arm started to hurt and I had a long scratch down my arm. It was frightening.”

Mr. Barret, the for-mer drama teacher, was there as a witness at the time, but blamed the scrape on Rhone.

The current drama teacher, Ms. Wredt, agrees, saying it is just the students’ imagina-tion

“There are always creaks and curtains or fabric blowing around,” said Wredt, a second year teacher. “It is a large space and often you see something out of the corner of your eye or hear something just behind you. Are those things real? Are

they in your mind? I don’t know.” Though she hasn’t seen a ghost, she

has had some surprises up there. “More than once I have been working and heard a noise and when I would come out to find what the noise is I would ac-cidentally sneak up on someone,” Wredt said.

As for Mary’s corner? “I can shed some light on why that corner is so ‘spooky’. In that corner is a spiral stair-case that leads down to the hallway. The

“There are al-ways creaks

and curtains or fabric blow-

ing around. It is a large space

and often you see something out of the cor-

ner of your eye or hear some-thing just be-

hind you.”-Ms. Wredt

4% of voters say they believe “lizard people” control our societies by gaining political power

21% of voters say a UFO crashed in Roswell, NM in 1947 and the US government covered it up.

7% of voters think the moon landing was faked

Legend or Truth?Percentage of Americans who believe certain urban legends and conspiracy theories

Public Policy Polling / Source

37% of voters believe global warming is a hoax

13% of voters think Barack Obama is the anti-Christ

51% of voters say a larger conspiracy was at work in the JFK assassination

15% of voters say the government or the media adds mind-controlling technology to TV broadcast signals

14% of voters say the CIA was instrumental in creating the crack cocaine epidemic in America’s inner cities in the 1980’s

34% of people believe blahblah blah

PRINCIPAL TURNED GHOST?: Features editor Luis Cisneros (11) investigates the area above the auditorium stage, where Mary McNamara, Benson’s principal from 1911-1950, (pictured above) is said to haunt a corner stairwell.

Benson High drama teacher

light is never on in this stairwell. Since it is a stairwell it is drafty and it moves the curtains near it. It is also changes the way sound moves so your voice has a bit of echo and sounds ‘weird’. All of these things combine to create this spooky feeling.” But the spookiness doesn’t scare Wredt.

“I dont think its paranormal at all,” she said.