116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Photos: Is McKinley STEAM academy haunted?
Oct. 27, 2019 1:00 am
If you've been keeping up with The Gazette for the last couple of months, you'll know that education reporter Molly Duffy and I are spending the schoolyear embedding at McKinley STEAM Academy in Cedar Rapids. We're looking at public education, their transition to a STEAM academy, and issues facing schools. While working on our second story about the history of the building, we learned that many people consider it to be haunted. And it just so happened that one of the school's custodians and his wife are paranormal investigators. So for fun, we got permission to do some ghost hunting late one Friday night. Josh and Katie Hopkins took us through the school's darkest passageways in search of signs of paranormal activity.
While the pair were unable to reach a definitive conclusion based on what we saw and heard, they maintain that the school is ripe for haunting. Maybe our readers will find clues in the photos that we've missed. ~ Rebecca Miller
A portrait of Frances Prescott hangs in the archive room, at McKinley STEAM Academy in Cedar Rapids on Friday, Sept. 27, 2019. Prescott was the first principal of McKinley High School and some believe her ghost now haunts the building. (Rebecca F. Miller/The Gazette)
An image of school faculty hangs in the hallway at McKinley STEAM Academy in Cedar Rapids on Friday, Sept. 27, 2019. The woman pictured in the center of the second row is considered by some to have returned to the school to haunt it. (Rebecca F. Miller/The Gazette)
The dark auditorium is lit by emergency exit lights at McKinley STEAM Academy in Cedar Rapids on Friday, Sept. 27, 2019. (Rebecca F. Miller/The Gazette)
Josh and Katie Hopkins of Cedar Rapids display their paranormal equipment while conducting an investigation at McKinley STEAM Academy in Cedar Rapids on Friday, Sept. 27, 2019. A 'ghost box' sweeps radio frequencies searching for audio communication from otherworldly spirits. An electromagnetic field meter (right) is used by ghost hunters to detect the presence of paranormal energy. (Rebecca F. Miller/The Gazette)
Armani Smith-Gibbs of Cedar Rapids lights the way through a fallout shelter with a cell phone flashlight at McKinley STEAM Academy in Cedar Rapids on Friday, Sept. 27, 2019. The fallout shelter, in the bowls of the building, is still stocked with 1960s-era emergency rations. (Rebecca F. Miller/The Gazette)
Old clocks are stored in a basement room at McKinley STEAM Academy in Cedar Rapids on Friday, Sept. 27, 2019. (Rebecca F. Miller/The Gazette)
A pencil rests on the ground in the archive room at McKinley STEAM Academy in Cedar Rapids on Friday, Sept. 27, 2019. (Rebecca F. Miller/The Gazette)
Armani Smith-Gibbs of Cedar Rapids and Keylah Thomas of Cedar Rapids explore the fallout shelter in bowls of the building at McKinley STEAM Academy in Cedar Rapids on Friday, Sept. 27, 2019. (Rebecca F. Miller/The Gazette)
Josh Hopkins, a paranormal investigator and custodian at the school, explores the fallout shelter at McKinley STEAM Academy in Cedar Rapids on Friday, Sept. 27, 2019. (Rebecca F. Miller/The Gazette)
Katie Hopkins and Josh Hopkins, paranormal investigators, look through a stack of old photos and prints in a hallway at McKinley STEAM Academy in Cedar Rapids on Friday, Sept. 27, 2019. (Rebecca F. Miller/The Gazette)
The boiler room was reportedly the scene of the death of a building engineer at McKinley STEAM Academy in Cedar Rapids on Friday, Sept. 27, 2019. Paranormal investigators Josh and Katie Hopkins suspect it could be one of the haunted spaces in the building. (Rebecca F. Miller/The Gazette)
Josh Hopkins, a custodian and paranormal investigator, looks into the space in the lunchroom that accesses an abandoned swimming pool at McKinley STEAM Academy in Cedar Rapids on Friday, Sept. 27, 2019. The pool was once part of the school's building plan, but it was abandoned and never finished. (Rebecca F. Miller/The Gazette)
Josh Hopkins, a custodian and paranormal investigator, lights his way through the fallout shelter with a cell phone at McKinley STEAM Academy in Cedar Rapids on Friday, Sept. 27, 2019. The shelter is still stocked with 1960s-era government rations. (Rebecca F. Miller/The Gazette)
The mask known as Percy Heavy Thinker floats in a case in the archive room at McKinley STEAM Academy in Cedar Rapids on Friday, Sept. 27, 2019. The mask was constructed by the artist Grant Wood, who was a teacher at McKinley High School. Well-behaved students were allowed to wear the mask as a reward. (Rebecca F. Miller/The Gazette)
Light pours into the auditorium from an upstairs hallway at McKinley STEAM Academy in Cedar Rapids on Friday, Sept. 27, 2019. (Rebecca F. Miller/The Gazette)
A photo of President William McKinley is displayed in a hallway at McKinley STEAM Academy in Cedar Rapids on Friday, Sept. 27, 2019. McKinley served as president from 1897 until his assassination in 1901. (Rebecca F. Miller/The Gazette)
Josh Hopkins, Katie Hopkins, Armani Smith-Gibbs of Cedar Rapids, and Keylah Thomas of Cedar Rapids walk through an underground hallway that leads to the fallout shelter at McKinley STEAM Academy in Cedar Rapids on Friday, Sept. 27, 2019. (Rebecca F. Miller/The Gazette)
Armani Smith-Gibbs of Cedar Rapids listens as a radio frequency scanner searches for nearby activity at McKinley STEAM Academy in Cedar Rapids on Friday, Sept. 27, 2019. Josh Hopkins and his wife, Katie Hopkins of Cedar Rapids (not pictured) are paranormal investigators who have (Rebecca F. Miller/The Gazette)
The beaux arts entryway to the school is seen at McKinley STEAM Academy in Cedar Rapids on Friday, Sept. 27, 2019. (Rebecca F. Miller/The Gazette)
Daily Newsletters