School for Backwards Youth

Today, St Coletta's in Jefferson, Wisconsin is a residential assisted-living community for those with developmental and other issues. It is a great establishment that does a lot of good for the community and the individuals involved. I would like to stress that before I get in to my story about the "old" St. Coletta's which has a much different history.

Way back when, the original St. Coletta's opened some time in 1904. At this time it was called "St. Coletta's School for Backwards Youth". As most of you know, there was not much knowledge, and basically zero regulation/protection for special ed or the disabled before 1975. St. Coletta's in its early days was a boarding school for those who were mentally ill, mentally handicapped, physically disabled, and anything else at the time that would be deemed "crazy".

The original St. Coletta's campus has been abandoned and overgrown for a couple of decades now I believe. Due to the abandoned-aesthetic and history of the place, many many paranormal/haunted stories of the campus have floated around south-central Wisconsin. Rosemary Kennedy was housed at the original St Coletta's campus. The rumor is that after her lobotomy, they hid her in one of the dorms here as a cover-up.

Anyway, I play in a Metal band in the area, and we were somehow able to have our management get us a permit to film a music video on the haunted campus, despite the dozens of no-trespassing signs and strict fines for entering. We were welcomed by the owner of the property, an older quiet man, who seemed disinterested in the place, maybe a little unsettled. Obviously, we asked him stories about paranormal activity. He was full of them. He talked of removing art form the walls of the school building and putting them in his home, causing his cats to freak out and stuff to fall off shelves randomly. All of which stopped when he returned the painting... He talked of the scratches on the wall, which were believed to be perfectly healthy people being kept in solidarity slowly losing their sanity and scratching at the walls. After about 30 minutes of a quick tour and stories, the man left, and we were left alone. Just the four members of the band, and the videographer.

We set up in the theater- a perfectly theatrical background for a creepy metal video. We filmed, not much happened. We heard a banging noise a few times. Creepy, but nothing beyond that. After hours of filming and getting the perfect shots, we broke everything down and decided to explore on our own. The first thing we checked out was church. The vocalist of my band stole a pamphlet from the 1970's..which he returned that same day after simply repeating "I had to". It was weird. It didn't seem like himself, but after returning the pamphlet he seemed okay. Next was the school building- four stories, with each one seemingly more creepy.

First floor was cool. That's where the theater and main rooms were. Everything was run-down, abandoned, stained, creepy. Photographers paradise, really. Second floor was a little more creepy. A lot of writing on the chalk boards. We assumed they were fake and put there by kids who had successfully broken in, but seeing choppy chalk writing of "they left me here" was eerie nonetheless. Third floor is where we hit our breaking point. Keep in mind, we have been slowly creeping through everything at this point, scared of what we might see around the corner. As we walked down the hallway, along the moldy, rusted lockers, we heard something. A fuzzy type of noise. As all of the band stopped and listened, a slight hum came with it. Looking down the hallway, we noticed the noise was coming from the bathroom. "oh boy" is the only thing that was said. As we crept towards the bathroom, we noticed a bit of steam coming out of the shower. All anyone could do is look at each other with wide eyes. I peaked my head around the corner. A shower head was definitely on. And then the slight hum came back, like someone casually singing to themselves in the shower.

It was a few seconds in to listening to the humming noise while pressed against the wall with our hearts pounding that we realized something....the old property owner mentioned that water and electricity has been shut off here since the 90's...We ran. Not only down the creaky stairs to the first floor, but out the main doors to the band van, where we packed things up, and got the hell out of there.

We still have no explanation. The property owner didn't bother responding when we told him about it. The whole place is intriguing for sure, and I am 100% sure that there is paranormal activity to be found there on the regular.