10 Benson Gazette October 2013
BENSON’S
BY J
L
11 Benson Gazette October 2013
S URBAN LEGENDS
H
JEREMY DAVIS,
ave you ever walked down a dark or empty corridor and
LUIS CISNEROS,
there was someone behind you, but the minute you turn
CHRISTOPHER
JOHANNES, there is nothing there?
Have you been in the auditorium and felt like there was a sadness or anger that overcomes
AND JOHNAYZ you and makes you feel uncomfortable? The truth is there just might be a spirit here who is folCARSTENS lowing you. If you haven’t heard, there are those who say Benson has its very own ghosts, and
felt like
around
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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 discover the truth behind Mary’s Corner,
the Underground Tunnels, and the Cupola. We asked the teachers and went on
our own discovery to see what we could
find about the myths that students whisper to themselves every year around this
time.
CONTINUED FROM
PREVIOUS PAGE
At the beginning we did not know
who to ask, so we started with Mr. Olson. He told us to talk to the teachers
that have been here the longest, meaning we would need to talk to Mark Meier, 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 Erienne Wredt, the drama teacher, about
Mary’s Corner because it is in the auditorium. We also spoke to Marissa Baldozier 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
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 auditorium (left). Art teacher Astra Patterson has been inside the Benson tunnels and
says she doesn’t care to go back there agin (right).
Tall Tales
remember. There are
The six scariest urban legends
places that our building
engineers have to get to
The Babaysitter and the man Upstairs
and there are something
A teenage babysitter calls the
I call ‘rooms’ that you go
police after receiving prank phone
up to repair wires and
calls from a creepy stranger, only to
such.”
find out the stranger is calling her
Meier also told us,
from inside the house.
“I heard that the teachBloody Mary
ers before me, that are
now retired, used to say
Say Bloody Mary 13 times and
there’s different stuff gosee what happens. Make sure it’s
ing on here.”
dark and that the bathroom light
When
questioned
is turned off.
about the tunnels, Meier
didn’t want to say too
Carmen Winstead
much, but he did confirm that he has been
Carmen Winstead and a17 year old
under ground Benson.
were pushed down a sewer, but she
“There are rooms
still came back from the dead to seek
where, like, other peoher revenge.
ple haven’t been into
that I’ve been into that I
The Clown Statue
probably shouldn’t have
been into, but I’ve been
Two small children being babysat
into them.”
called there parents about the huge
Meier also hinted that
clown doll they found, but their
there are other strange
parents say they don’t know
rooms in the school that
anything about it
most people have never
The Well to Hell
seen.
“There’s like closThe workers quit their job when
ets and storage places
they heard the sound of damned
that are kind of bizarre
voices down in the well and later
and you can find weird
the ‘Devil’ himself appeared and
things.”
said “I have Conquered.”
What kind of weird
The White Death
things? “There are Classrooms with doors [that
She commited suicide to destroy
lead] out of them and
herself and killed her family a few
next to them, to get to
days after her death. Now if you
various places,” Meier
find out about her she will find
said.
you and kill you as well.
SOURCE / ABOUT.COM GRAPHIC / LUIS CISNEROS
Meier said, “But I’ve
been into one that was
While Meier wouldn’t say it was a
so dark that you can’t see, so you cannot
anything paranormal, he did say that he
go in.”
felt “an abandoned-like feeling.”
“There are places you walk by everyday that lead to the underground tunnels 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 department. Patterson, one of the longestserving 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
13 Benson Gazette October 2013
Cornelius trampled John to get out
much more after that. “Not that anything ever happened. I never heard any- the door.”
In Baldozier’s next incident she came
thing terrible happening. It’s the living,
away with what could be physical evithey’re the dangerous ones.”
When asked if she believes in the un- dence that the legend is true.
“The other time,”
known, Patterson said
Baldozier said, “I went
she is more of a realinto the guy’s dressing
ist. “Yeah I’m a skeptic I
room to get my book
don’t believe in ghosts,”
bag and I came out
Patterson said.
and was walking down
When asked about
the back hallway and
Mary’s Corner, the legmy arm started to hurt
endary place in the auand I had a long scratch
diorium from where
down my arm. It was
Benson
ex-Principal
frightening.”
Mary McNamara haunts
Mr. Barret, the forthe school, Patterson
mer drama teacher, was
said she had heard a lot
there as a witness at the
of rumors.
time, but blamed the
“From what I’ve
scrape on Rhone.
heard, she was quite a
The current drama
legend around here, but
teacher, Ms. Wredt,
she was here before my
agrees, saying it is just
time.”
the students’ imaginaWe Interviewed Mation
rissa Baldozier, who
“There are always
has had a couple runcreaks and curtains or
ins with the ghost. “I
fabric blowing around,”
have had two encounsaid Wredt, a second
ters with Mary, one was
year teacher. “It is a
when I went down into
Benson High drama teacher large space and often
her corner with a few of
you see something out
my friends, Cornelius
of the corner of your
Rhone, Austin Tracy,
eye or hear something
and John Stoops,” said
just behind you. Are
Baldozier.
those things real? Are
“We were down in
the corner and we all heard something they in your mind? I don’t know.”
Though she hasn’t seen a ghost, she
move and we all saw a face and then
“There are always creaks
and curtains
or fabric blowing around. It
is a large space
and often you
see something
out of the corner of your eye
or hear something just behind you.”
-Ms. Wredt
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 accidentally 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 staircase that leads down to the hallway. The
Legend or Truth?
Percentage of Americans who believe certain urban legends and conspiracy theories
13% of voters think Barack
Obama is the anti-Christ
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.
15% of voters say the government
or the media adds mind-controlling
technology to TV broadcast signals
34% of people believe blah
blah blah
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
4% of voters say they believe
“lizard people” control our
societies by gaining
political power
51% of voters say a larger
conspiracy was at work
in the JFK assassination
PRINCIPAL TURNED GHOST?: Features
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.
37% of voters believe global
warming is a hoax
14% of voters say the CIA was
instrumental in creating the
crack cocaine epidemic in America’s
inner cities in the 1980’s
Public Policy Polling / Source