Haunted halls?

Apparitions lurking through your school's backstage door?

Ghosts making mischief in the underground tunnels?

Music mysteriously swelling from an old building in the night?

People at several Utah schools and universities say yes.

About two dozen of Utah's educational institutions are listed as haunted on the Utah Ghost Organization's Web site.

Those, plus dozens of other spirited destinations, from the Spanish Fork Cemetery to the Great Salt Lake, are among "some of the most talked about" haunted places, at least according to "folklore, rumors, even scientific methods," the Web site says. The reports often are e-mailed, and the Web site assures "we don't claim that they are accurate or true. These are posted for your entertainment."

Some ghost stories rattle chains for generations, perhaps assisted by the school itself.

Pleasant Grove and West high schools, as well as Kearns Junior High, sit atop underground tunnels. They're a curiosity to students, and generally off limits to them.

West's Brent Taylor, a social studies teacher of more than 40 years and former student, says the tunnels once were giant vents coming from a detached boiler building — a common way to warm buildings back when. Kearns Junior High drama teacher Scott Henrie says that school was created from an old Army-owned building, and its tunnels have contained old World War II-era ammunition and rations — plus cats, rats the size of cats, bats, brown recluse spiders and even a coyote seen scampering away.

Such pests occasionally make a more public appearance, perhaps adding to ghostly fodder.

Bats once swooped down on spectators at Cyprus High's choir concert, forcing the performance outside. And at West recently, one cruised over the heads of screeching students in a crowded hall, vice principal Rick Jaramillo said, adding the school is taking action to get rid of the furry fliers.

West also has been a site for horror movie filmmakers, Jaramillo said, and in some areas it does have dark stairways, which he wants to light better.

Such facts often give rise to folklore, said Randy Williams, curator of folklore at Utah State University's special collections and archives. Indeed, some schools' alleged hauntings are linked to actual deaths or crimes that have taken place on or near campus and involved former students or workers.

Henrie uses the school's history to weave ghost stories. He tells them to his drama classes in the school's "dungeon," under the stage area where old props and costumes are stored. His storytelling sessions have attracted parents and grandparents, too, in evening sessions Henrie hosted last week.