The Legend of Old Maui High School

Near the north shore of Maui, tucked away in a former sugar plantation town called Hamakuapoko are the ruins of old Maui High School. Founded in 1913, this relic of a bygone era, served students for nearly 60 years as Maui’s first co-ed public high school. Pupils, many of whose families worked in local cane fields or sugar mills, jumped at the leg up offered by this free educational opportunity. They came by foot, horse, or rail until January of 1972, when shifts in the local economy forced the relocation of the school to the community of Kahului in central Maui.

Largely abandoned to vandals and the elements for the better part of three decades, the sprawling site was defaced with graffiti, ravaged by arsonists, and overrun by vegetation. Today, through years of effort by alumni and an organization called Friends of Old Maui High School, the 23-acre campus has been reclaimed. 12 structures still remain, including the shell of the 17,000 square foot administration building. Elements of its grand architecture in the Spanish Mission Revival style still loom large over the land and in the imaginations of all those who behold it.

Although the state of Hawaii is home to many unique indigenous beliefs, like any modern locale, it is susceptible to the ubiquitous and rather homogeneous ghost-lore of the U.S. In the absence of factual information, urban legends fueled by horror movies and adolescent fantasy creep in. One popular notion just as evident on Maui as on the mainland is the belief that old school buildings are haunted. 

A quick inspection of sensational paranormal websites will produce a heap of hearsay alleging that school buildings nationwide are bursting with ghosts as well as young angst. One legend has it that spirits would accost pupils seen skipping class, throttling or choking them as punishment. There have also been reports of visitors to the site feeling fingers around their necks, and the sound of a girl sobbing inside the now derelict high school bathroom. According to rumors circling within the community, the spirits of old students and administration staff also still roam the grounds, occasionally interacting with visitors to the old site. The bustling hallways of schools overflow with teen drama and may share the alleged psychic residue built up in favorite haunts like old theaters, hospitals, and other places of emotional import to the masses. 

In the case of old Maui High School, a promenade with 19 massive archways and towering royal palms provides an awe-inspiring setting, which casts long shadows over the ground as well as the mind. Unsubstantiated claims of anonymous visitors tell of the muffled cries of a girl, sobbing within the decaying walls of a derelict bathroom, out of order since the 1970s. This is surely something easy to relate to. For who hasn’t had a good cry in the high school toilets at least once in their lives? Whether this account is due to an actual residual haunting, a subjective projection, or, simply, a made-up story will most likely never be known. According to local rumors, other roaming spirits include past students and staff as well as long-dead missionaries and plantation owners from the time when the community of Hamakuapoko was a sugar plantation camp.

Far more interesting are the old Maui High School tales of choking ghosts. Although, once again, there is no way to substantiate anonymous claims that current visitors to the site have felt invisible fingers closing around their throats or that, in former times, students loitering in the halls after the bell were disciplined with a proper throttling by unseen hands, such tropes are consistent with long-standing, endemic folklore.

Stories of choking ghosts in Hawaii date back to at least the 19th Century. Island newspapers of the 1800s and later are filled with articles about panicked immigrants and visiting sailors who describe fearful encounters with formidable ghosts of Hawaiian descent. One detail is a constant — a spectral fondness for strangulation.

Such unique tales from Hawaii persist in modern times on numerous websites, podcasts, and TV shows as well as in newspapers and magazines. Most importantly today’s accounts oftentimes include testimony from named eyewitnesses.

However, these reports differ from such stories involving the old Maui High School campus in one more important way. Both old and new accounts of choking ghosts usually involve nocturnal attacks on sleepers not urban explorers in the act of trespassing, disrespectful pupils, or others who are wide awake. Some believe that choking ghosts are just an interesting regional interpretation of sleep paralysis. However, at least one witness on Oahu alleges that other officers who worked with him on the Honolulu Police Department have informly reported wakeful experiences with choking ghosts. In the October 2004 edition of Honolulu Magazine , former officer Ray Duropan said "he knows several fellow HPD officers who swear they have been attacked by choking ghosts while working the airport beat."

"They won't tell you, but I will," says Ray. "They were in their cars, late at night, when, all of a sudden, they felt something sitting on their chests. They couldn't breathe. We're police officers. We're not supposed to be scared of anything. But let me tell you something. A choking ghost will get your attention."

The hollow walls and crumbling facades of old Maui High’s campus offer fertile ground for stories of paranormal activity to echo through time. Whether any of this is true in an empirical sense is likely to remain unknown, untested, and unproven. However, what is known is that the Friends of Old Maui High School have been working hard since 2004 to reclaim the site and adapt it for reuse. Although in recent years it has been the scene of class reunions, volunteer clean-up efforts, and, even a Halloween haunted house in 2015, it is not open to the public.

Once dancers and local theater groups were allowed to rehearse in the former school gymnasium by the County Department of Parks and Recreation. In 2006, the architectural gem of the administration building, built in 1921, was recognized as a historic landmark in the Hawaii Register of Historic Places. Unfortunately both buildings succumbed to dangerous fires. The stark reality is that these fires were deliberately set by those attracted to the site’s spooky allure. It’s not difficult to understand why Maui County has now closed the campus to unauthorized visitors.

Friends of Old Maui High School hope to someday rebuild, restoring the skeleton of the administration building to its former glory. Their goal is to reopen it as a community center dedicated to education and job-training, ultimately offering the disadvantaged of today, the same leg up the school once offered. However, this dream will require millions of dollars to become reality. If you’d like to help make this dream come true, contact Friends of Old Maui High School to make a donation.

For more about the supernatural heritage of the Hawaiian Islands, please consider our ghost walks in Hilo.

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