Suffolk's Lakeland High teens find their own answers

SUFFOLK

Doors were open. Lights were off. The thermometer recorded a temperature of 69 degrees. The electromagnetic field meter beeped and flashed as Becca Warren carried it around the second floor of Prentis House.

Her team gathered in a room with a fireplace and large desk jutting from the wall. The teen scientists placed a compass and a Geiger counter - a metal box that detects radiation - on a rug and waited.

Then they got their cue: "Let's party like it's 1899," Marcus Daniels, their teacher at Lakeland High School, called over the radio, signaling it was time to start the investigation.

Since September, members of the Lakeland Skeptics Society have pitted science against the supernatural. Daniels, an earth science and oceanography teacher, formed the club to boost students' problem-solving skills. Twenty-five students signed up.

Using the scientific method, the students meet after school and on weekends to investigate myths, urban legends and paranormal activity.

"It's strictly science and I like to keep it that way," Daniels said. "These kids have all kinds of different beliefs."

Early on, the group tested the question: "Is a Ouija board guided by the paranormal or is it just a piece of compressed cardboard and plastic?" They formed a hypothesis - that the board works by subconscious human error - and conducted the experiment. Ten students decided paranormal activity couldn't be ruled out, while six others agreed with the hypothesis.

Something of a novelty in high schools, the club is scheduled to be featured next year in an issue of Colorado-based Haunted Times magazine.

Last month, students met on two Saturday nights for evidence-gathering sessions at Prentis House, a more than 200-year-old structure that's home to the city's visitors center.

Several students sported black shirts with the "Ghostbusters" logo. They carried plenty of gear, including a Ouija board, tarot cards and a $5,000 thermal imaging camera on loan from Southeastern Environmental & Construction.

The room where Becca's team sat was quiet, save for a couple of whispered questions and Civil War-era music blasting on the floor below. Daniels, who described it as "Lil Wayne of the 1800s," figured the music might stir up paranormal activity, if any existed.

"We'd really like to talk to you if anyone's here with us," Becca said.

"Can you just give us a sign of your presence?" freshman Kayla Culbertson asked in the same quiet tone.

The sign never came.

Or did it?

Anyone on the second floor knock? Daniels asked over the radio. Nope, they responded.

But somebody heard a knock.

Students on the third floor thought they heard a scream. Then Daniels said he heard another knock on the second floor. Becca's team heard nothing.

A minute later, they did hear a knock - a loud one. Their bodies stiffened. Becca immediately reached for the radio.

"There's somebody at the front door," Daniels said.

Hattie Brown Garrow, (757) 222-5562, hattie.brown@pilotonline.com