The following article is part of an April Fools’ Edition of The Etownian: the stories are fake the but interviews/quotes are real.
The night that Elizabethtown College grad student Becca Russell was assigned to patrol the art exhibit in Leffler Chapel, she assumed the bathroom would be a place to simply do her business before she went home for the night. However, someone (or perhaps something) decided to turn it into a fear fest, bringing a whole new meaning to the phrase, “scare your pants off.”
Still in the stall, she listened to the sound of someone’s footsteps rushing in and then the slamming of a stall a few doors over. There was no shadow—no sign of feet under the stall walls—yet she swore she heard it. After washing her hands, she decided to check on her new friend, only to find that all the stalls were empty. Any sign of the disturbance was simply gone.
Thinking that perhaps the other person had managed to leave without her noticing (which she realized would mean that they had not washed their hands) she searched the rest of the building. Yet there was no one. She was truly the only person on patrol, the only person who had been in that bathroom, and seemingly the only person who had experienced the absolute absurdity of that night.
Despite feeling alone that night, Becca Russell is not the only student to claim to have experienced unexplainable, possibly paranormal events here at the College. As she was walking to class the following day, recounting the story to a friend, another student passing by overheard and confirmed the mystery, “Yeah no, that place is totally haunted.” Even back in 2013, a paranormal ghost show team actually came to campus to investigate reports of disembodied voices and moving objects in the Fairview Apartments (what Wenger used to be called when it housed students).
All that being said: If there were such a thing as a ghost hunting sport on campus, would you participate? Would you walk into bathrooms and old dorms at night just to see your anxiety go from “college student” level to “haunted college student” level? Would you even consider it a sport? (Most of our sources say no to that last one, but you never know. Running from the paranormal is probably less stressful than finals and could totally count as an exercise.)
Still, for something with no guarantee of ever becoming a real thing, many students seemed ecstatic over the idea of a ghost hunting group on campus. Becca’s first reaction when I proposed it was a shout of, “I LOVE that!” and a couple other students also commented that it sounded like an exciting new activity. So, it seems we have found a new hobby.
Time to go check the bathrooms at 10 p.m.!
