![Benjamin Williams and Reese Sherman, social studies teachers, explain department information a guest. "This [open house] was, for me, a great opportunity to meet family in the district that will soon be attending the high school," Williams said.](https://www.utimesonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/DSC_9117-1200x800.jpg)
Throughout University City High School, there are various doors that few students or faculty members have ever seen the other side of. While the signs that are posted on those doors usually are ignored, disregard of these signs could lead to grotesque results.
“I have tried to sneak into the basement area, but it was very dark and I got scared and ran,” said junior Kylann Clayborn.
Some of the spiraling staircases that lead to the underbelly of U. City give off the illusion that the visitor is entering the deep, dark depths of hell!
At the bottom of these staircases, the visitor is met with a shadow of darkness and the loud spinning noise of the generator. The intimidating noise would inspire fear in almost anybody.
“I would be terrified to be down there by myself,” said junior Kayla Heidelberg.
Only the assistant principal, Mr. Blumenhorst, and the head custodian have keys to these rooms and they are also the only people in U. City that know how to work these complex machines.
“I have been working for U. City for 20 years and I know this building like the back of my hand, but I have yet to explore the basement of the school by myself,” said Blumenhorst.
The eerie silence that pervades these many rooms only emphasizes the quiet loneliness of the high school basement.
Yet, there is much to be discovered in the rooms below U. City, but the untraveled parts of the school are completely off-limits to students. Students can only imagine the content behind these doors.
“I have heard that there is a underground tunnel that goes from the high school all the way to Jackson Park,” said senior Willie Vick. “I have yet to find it but I am determined to before I graduate.”
Blumenhorst could not confirm that there is a tunnel but warns against searching for it.
“Those areas are restricted for a reason,” he said, “Students should refrain from entering those dangerous areas.”
The contents below U. City have been kept secret for decades and will remain a secret. Only students’ vivid imagination can give them a guess as to what lies beneath our floors.
