V.C.: So my school was over 150 years old. A lot of this story is definitely legend. There are some things that are facts, but I don’t think this story as a whole is entirely factual. I think there are facts that mix with people making things up. But people swear that they see this ghost.

So my school is an all girls boarding school. For graduation, we walked down this really big hill, barefoot in long white dresses, wedding dresses essentially. Pretty strange. But that’s what we do, and that’s what’s been done since 1867.

The ghost, the person the ghost is modeled after, is a real girl who unfortunately took her own life in the theater by hanging. The legend goes that she did this pretty close to when graduation was happening. Every morning, and this is still true, the whole school meets in the theater for morning meeting to do announcements before class. The story goes that the whole school is there, they open the curtains, and she’s hanging there. But this is where I think the legend part comes in, because why would you open the curtains? I think that’s just the fabricated theatrical side of it. But she did unfortunately end her life that way, a long, long time ago.

My school also did this thing called Senior Streak the night before graduation, where all the seniors ran around naked. And people will say that they see her walking down graduation hill in her white dress. People will look out their window on the night before graduation and see her walking down the hill.

I’ve also heard that there was a girl who died in a car crash before graduation and that she is the ghost, not the person who took her own life. It could just be my brain mixing multiple stories, but I also think it’s just lore in general, where things are true. There was a girl who died in a car crash before graduation and didn’t get to graduate. There was a girl who committed suicide before graduation and didn’t get to graduate. I don’t know if it’s the same ghost. It’s a tricky place. There are lots of ghost stories.

Interviewer: Is this really known outside of the boarding school, like in the surrounding towns, or is it just sort of a boarding school thing?

V.C.: I’m not sure, honestly, because there was another suicide at my boarding school the year after I graduated. She also took her own life in the theater. I’m sure the town knows about it. The town where my school is is pretty small, so people know that this school has a history. I’m not converging the actual tragedy of a girl I knew with these lore stories, because that’s real and separate. But I think stories like these come from events like that eventually. I don’t know if the town knows the specific story of the girl who walks down the hill, but they know there are ghosts.

The boarding school itself is a very haunted place, and there’s just lots of creepy stuff. There are still World War Two fallout shelters under the dorms, the signs still up on the doors. So there’s just a lot of strange history. And then the original building from when the school was founded in 1867 is still there. We never walked through it at night. You go outside and go around. If you had to pass through it you ran. You just don’t go through there.

I think it goes into tradition more than anything substantial. Girls being together and being bored on the weekends. You know, there’s something in there and let’s not go in there. So yeah.

Interviewer: Yeah, that’s really cool. Thank you so much for sharing.

Context: This story was told to the Interviewer by his high school roommate’s’ sister in late April. She went to an all girls boarding school that was known to be haunted. Multiple deaths occurred and traditions grew from superstitions surrounding them

Their Thoughts: V.C doesn’t fully believe in the story, thinking that it is greatly exaggerated. However, many of her friends report seeing the dead girl walking around the lawn right before graduation. She is completely bought into the fact that the deaths occurred, but thinks that the story is sometimes hyped up to make scarier

My Thoughts: I have a less pessimistic view on this than V.C, having gone to boarding school myself I know the history and past of a lot of these institutions and believe that they are a prime place for ghosts and their stories to manifest. V.C does mention that everyone in the area knows the boarding school is haunted and would tell you as much if you asked. This story follows a pretty standard formula where someone dies prematurely and haunts the place where they passed. I found it rather interesting.