Haunted House returns to offer chilling respite to weary Wildcats
Halloween. For some, a nightmare, for others, the most magical time of the year. The Haunted House has returned, leaving screaming high schoolers in its wake. On October 26, students from a vast variety of places joined forces to host the annual event. These students spent weeks prepping and constructing a maze of maniacal haunts in the gym, then throughout the morning, students and teachers got to walk through and enjoy their bone-chilling hard work.
Special Education teacher Stephanie Polak is one of many staff members who worked hard to help put together the student-favorite spectacular.
“My favorite part is all the groups that are involved in creating the event,” she said. “We work with Connected, which is a peer mentor group and our adaptive art, Physical Education Department, Global Academy, and Leadership. So it’s really neat to see all the different groups come together to make one really cool creation.”
Teachers find that students take a lot out of the creative experience and executing the Haunted House.
“Helping my classmates build it, we got a lot of teamwork out of it,” junior Percy Bloom, previous Leadership student, said.
This experience was influential for students from other classes as well. GJ Zahner, a student from Level III of Global Academy, found engaging with peers a wonderful benefit that blended perfectly with their current unit, “Challenges and Changes.”
“It was a great opportunity to collaborate and share ideas with others,” Zahner said. “We had to overcome a lot of stressful moments, but it was definitely worth it to scare other students.”
The illusions of the Haunted House extend further than most realize.
“There’s so much behind the scenes,” Polak said. “People that just help put things together, our custodians, everyone’s helping us do things. There’s probably a hundred plus people that help with creating sets, props, and those types of things.”
Though there are many people that help behind the scenes to put the Haunted House together, the real fun comes for the scare technicians actually working the event itself.
“The number of people actually in the Haunted House is anywhere between 30 to 60; it just kind of depends on the situation, because there are still classes going on, some kids come and go,” Polak said.
As with any day of fun and excitement, like the end of the year CARE Days festival, it requires a lot of planning and effort.
“Global Academy and Leadership spend a significant amount of time just brainstorming and coming up with ideas,” Polak said. “Then go-time is the week of the Haunted House. We have two days to set up, so there’s a lot that’s done ahead of time to prepare. Sometimes teachers are here after school making sure everything’s ready to go for the big show on Thursday.”
Polak noted some eerie differences between this year’s Haunted House and those of years past.
“It was creepier and scarier than ever,” she said. “We really want people to be surprised. I’m really excited to see new themes and the creativity that the groups are coming up with.”
Not every student has been thrilled with the way the event has run in the past. This year, tours of the Haunted House only took place during first hour and W-hour. Senior Leah Hollis prefers this to the way it has run in the past.
“I don’t like it when every teacher, every hour brings you to the Haunted House so you have to go through it five times a day,” she said.
On the other hand, senior Autumn Davis-Krebs believes there is no downside, and is happy to go through the frightful space as many times as she’s able.
“It’s really fun considering that students get to build it, go through it, and see all the people that did the hard work to make it happen,” she said.
The ultimate goal of the Haunted House is to brighten spirits during the difficult stretch at the end of first quarter.
“I think it’s important to remember that we’re all still young,” Polak said. “We all still need to have a little bit of fun in life, and I think that the Haunted House is a way for the school to just take a deep breath, have fun, and remember the spirit of Halloween.”
by Ashley Schumann and Emma Toney
Published October 30, 2023
Oshkosh West Index Issue 120 Volume 2