This school surveillance cam’s ‘Poltergeist’ is freaking everyone out

Hope this wasn't already posted, didn't see it when looking down the list. if it was can a mod delete?
anyway it's quite a spooky clip if one is into ghostliness.

"Surveillance cameras at a school have captured a “mysterious entity” slamming doors and rocking lockers at night.The footage was filmed at Deerpark CBS, a school in Cork, Ireland, after motion-activated cameras were installed on site.It seems to shows a door opening and closing of its own accord, furniture rocking back and forth unaided and a locker flying open, sending papers flying across the corridor..At one point a “caution wet floor” sign is thrown down the hall as if it had just been kicked.Principal Kevin Barry said: “Obviously we were alerted to movement in the school and when we went back to review the movement that’s what we saw.” "

a reply to: RoScoLaz5

It's interesting, but also easy to fake. The door could be kicked open by someone behind the lockers. The lockers that are shaken are placed in front of what appears to be a window, not hard for someone on the other side to shake them. The sign weighs nothing, so string (fishing wire) would make that thing fly across the floor. I could be 100% wrong, but I'm a skeptic first and a believer second.

What lends credibility is the supposed principle talking about it. But again, he could be fooled like the rest of us. (If fake.)

Just strange. I would like to know the actual source and how many hands touched it before coming to a video on youtube.

originally posted by: Aegeus
a reply to: RoScoLaz5

It's interesting, but also easy to fake. The door could be kicked open by someone behind the lockers. The lockers that are shaken are placed in front of what appears to be a window, not hard for someone on the other side to shake them. The sign weighs nothing, so string (fishing wire) would make that thing fly across the floor. I could be 100% wrong, but I'm a skeptic first and a believer second.

What lends credibility is the supposed principle talking about it. But again, he could be fooled like the rest of us. (If fake.)

Yeah
But the :51 second mark is a bit more complex to consider. I watched it slow motion over and over looking for maybe some potential shadow differences that could be I don't know...someone dressed in green and greenscreened out but didn't see anything....not that I am an expert

a reply to: Aegeus

By the same token the locker that opened could also be on a line, with the books stacked against it, forcing the door open.
And it looks like books spill out before the door opens.

Everything was point specific, and the locker was repetitive in movement, which lends credence to a set up.

I do not have an answer if this is legit or not, but I could do something like this with no problem.

There was another thread that discussed this. Ghost haunting school in Cork Ireland?

But the video that thread referenced has been removed from YouTube.

-dex

originally posted by: SaturnFX

originally posted by: Aegeus
a reply to: RoScoLaz5

It's interesting, but also easy to fake. The door could be kicked open by someone behind the lockers. The lockers that are shaken are placed in front of what appears to be a window, not hard for someone on the other side to shake them. The sign weighs nothing, so string (fishing wire) would make that thing fly across the floor. I could be 100% wrong, but I'm a skeptic first and a believer second.

What lends credibility is the supposed principle talking about it. But again, he could be fooled like the rest of us. (If fake.)

Yeah
But the :51 second mark is a bit more complex to consider. I watched it slow motion over and over looking for maybe some potential shadow differences that could be I don't know...someone dressed in green and greenscreened out but didn't see anything....not that I am an expert

The old fishing line tied to the handle. We can see how the door opens then oscillates around the point where it would be if it were being pulled by a thread. We would need to see the scene from multiple vantage points.

If I were to go "ghost hunting", I'd get lots of weather anemometers, infra red cameras, and magnetometers, then place them in a tight grid. The slightest breeze or change in temperature would be obvious.

Its Friday the 13th...therefore the release date makes it suspicious.

I was actually waiting for the scary face and loud scream that usually accompanies these videos lol

a reply to: RoScoLaz5

It's interesting, to be sure, and I don't want to be a wet blanket here, but....

...much of this could have been staged.

The door down the hallway could have been moved by someone. It's hard to say if anyone is there or not.

The lockers that move happen to be the set in front of a window.

The locker could have been rigged, to open and spew stuff out.

The sign could have been moved using fishing line. Now, how to set that up ahead of time, and not be on camera, would be the trick. Possible, but that's the tougher element.

I'd be reviewing footage from earlier in the day, if I was at the school, and perhaps checking exterior cameras, such as by that window, or any cam that gives a better view down that hallway.

Could be something, but could easily be faked, too. Nice effort, if so!

Edit to add - upon reviewing the video again, at 1/4 speed, I could see a shadowy human shape against the door down the hallway. Now, sure, one could claim that's a ghost, but far more likely a prankster.

Fake! Obviously fishing line. Knew it for certain once I saw the wet floor sign drop.

So the motion activated cameras caught motion before the door even opened.....yeah

It was staged by a group of 4th year students which is also known in Ireland as transition year. It's a year of school where you spend most of your time just doing activities and going on trips. The big giveaway to that video is how low the camera is. It's the same height as the notice board.

a reply to: RoScoLaz5


There is a consistent distortion taking place along the path of movement. In other words you can follow the distortion move from the back door all the way to the kicking of the wet floor sign. This can be faked, but I have also seen something similar to this during my "Shadow Society" investigations.

A few questions need to be asked:
1 Why is the camera located so low on the wall? It seems that the other cameras in the hall (if that's what they are) are located near the ceiling.

2 Why did the one locker open so easily while the other locker was near impossible for the thing to open?

3 Why is a locker set not attached to the wall? Doesn't that constitute a safety issue?

4 If this "IS" a potential noisy ghost (aka "Poltergeist") is there any historical reason for this hunting? (on the other hand if this is a rowdy Shadow Person, because sometimes they are cloaked rather then just shadows. What's the item of interest for this behavior)?

As it was stated in the other thread on this, this could be done by doing two filming shots one being a green screen job, and the other just being the hallway as a set piece. It could have been done as a "All Hollowed Eve" thing by the school official, students, or I don't know riff raff. Point is it could be real or it could be faked. Either way it's a clean video, and nicely done.

a reply to: fusionhunter

The big giveaway to that video is how low the camera is. It's the same height as the notice board.

Good observation.

The window bay behind the locker is also deep enough for a kid to sit in.

Quick tale for the thread at large. We have heavy fire doors (with closers) and CCTV at work. Two of the cleaners told me they'd been packing up for the night when the nearby fire door banged shut. I did a bit of mocking because we get on very well. They were emphatic about it so I tested the door to see if it was even possible for it to open or close by itself. The door couldn't stay open and neither could it shut with a bang due to the closer.

Anyway, me and the boss went through the CCTV next day and the camera went off at the moment they said the door closed. We watched them putting away their stuff and the footage just stopped.

a reply to: RoScoLaz5


Already posted and debunked

a reply to: norhoc

It had been posted before, but it doesn't really look like it was debunked.

All you sceptics are missing the point. It is not enough to argue that you (or someone) could have faked this CCTV footage. A proper debunking of this footage requires EVIDENCE of fakery, not just dodgy arguments that prove nothing. None of you have provided one iota of incontestible evidence that the ostensible poltergeist events were manufactured. Until you do, the proper scientific stance is to remain neutral because of lack of evidence proving either authenticity or a hoax. There really is nothing virtuous per se in being sceptical towards a paranormal claim if it is based simply on prejudice, not on real evidence. Are you worried your brains might fall out if you remained open-minded?

a reply to: micpsi


In order to provide that kind of evidence we would need to go to the school, and conduct an evidence gathering investigation. After the evidence is collected, then tests can be conducted to show if/if not this is a HOAX or not. What you are stating is correct, but it's an argument of fallacy.

If this is a HOAX, then the site would have been cleaned up after the video is shot. No evidence found.
If this is a true event, but happens randomly. No evidence found.

In your example, in order for a scientific study to be preformed the event would have a reoccurring phenomena that can be reliably measured so that tests can be ran. In other words:
"A chimpanzee out in the woods can make fire by rubbing two sticks together. A person see this, and makes a video of it happing. If that chimpanzee can not be captured and tested, then by all accounts the video can be neither stated to be true or false."

In this event the "Ghost" is either a group of students, school administrators, or some other riff raff (in this case riff raff includes Shadow people, noisy ghosts, and/or teens or adults just wanting to make a video) Without actually being there at the time this event took place, no one can give a solid account for what happened. On the other hand a HOAX can be ruled in/out if enough speculative evidence can be given, that can be tested and measured, to dispute the video in question.

originally posted by: Sakrateri
So the motion activated cameras caught motion before the door even opened.....yeah

My CCTV setup at home also records with motion, but like any modern DVR, it is constantly recording. With modern DVRs, you can "rewind" to check out a tv commercial or scene of a tv show or movie. Anyway, in the configuration of my setup, I choose to also save the previous two minutes when a recording is made. So, it is very possible for the video to record the scene before any movement is perceived.

Disclaimer: I have no opinion on the events shown on this video.

This post is a bit TL;DR but I encourage anyone who finds knee-jerk debunks annoying to stick with it, because the upshot of what follows demonstrates the credibility of the claims made about the source of this video. In effect, it's a debunk of the debunking. (I wish I had been able to prettify it with some pictures, but life's too short already...)

The chief objection that's been made is the apparently low-mounted position of the CCTV camera. While it's true that CCTV cameras are often mounted quite high up, to capture a wide area in public spaces, it's also true that this is usually so that it is easier to pick out individuals in a crowd. E.g., Londoners will be familiar with CCTV at far lower heights inside London busses, where the area under surveillance is more tightly-controlled and confined.

The idea that wall-mounted CCTV might be installed in a school is not automatically excluded, and in fact makes a fair amount of sense when you consider that Deerpark is a secondary school in the Irish education system, which means it takes pupils as young as 12. These pupils are obviously going to be significantly shorter than the average member of the public. So mounting CCTV cameras a little lower than usual could make immediate sense (otherwise, you might not get any facial details at all from a shorter individual).

None of this rules out the idea that other CCTV cameras might be mounted at different heights in the same building - we are only seeing a recording from one particular camera.

The second thing to say about this is that the video has emerged via the school principal, whose name is attached to the story because he has spoken to the media. Let's take the respectability of his position as read. He's not going to get mixed up in some juvenile prank very easily, he must spend a large amount of his time dealing with pupil misbehaviour (I mean, that's his job, really, isn't it).

I'm not sure what motive he could have for releasing a video that could quite conceivably deter nervous or superstitious pupils from enrolling at his school!

Also, his role in the emergence of this story is significant. Deerpark's official name is "Deerpark CBS" (School's official website here).

"CBS" stands for "Christian Brotherhood School" (not surprising in such a religious nation as Ireland). The Christian Brotherhood is officially the Edmund Rice Schools Trust (ERST) - the backstory to this name is fairly dull, so am not dealing with it here.

ERST doesn't appear to have published a mission statement on CCTV in its schools, and nor does Deerpark itself. This isn't suspicious, it just shows a lack of co-ordination. But here's what ERST says about pupil privacy and wellbeing:

The school partners seek to promote personal dignity and safety so that all members of the school community may work and learn together, free from harassment, bullying or disruption.

The reason those words are significant is that they have been used to support the introduction of CCTV in other schools run by the ERST. Here is a full schedule of the CCTV policy of another ERST institution in Cork County, like Deerpark itself. (N.b., that link is to a Google-cached page, since the original document appears to be offline right now).

And in that policy we find the following detail:

The data controller in respect of images recorded and stored by the CCTV system in the school is the Principal on behalf of The Board of Management. The personal data recorded and stored by the CCTV system will only be available to the data controller and will be used only for the purposes outlined on the signage

This fits with the situation at Deerpark - the principal is the person who checked the footage and released it to the media. And he was quite safe to do so, because the recording didn't intrude into anyone's privacy, because it didn't depict anyone at all!

Finally, Deerpark has its own Twitter account and it has Tweeted the video so we can rule out the idea that the entire thing is a joke at the school's expense. That tweet is from October 11, but the video is clearly datestamped October 1, and it was released to the the Irish press shortly after that, and first published by them on October 5.

So, it's a real video, released by the right person in a position to control the school's CCTV recordings (Kevin Barry, who is listed as principal on the school's own website), and it has been acknowledged by the school's social media accounts. Not only that, but the supposed connection with Friday 13th turns out to be nothing of the sort and the only slightly theatrical aspect of the date is that it occurs in the same month as Hallowe'en. Pearl Harbor was attacked in the same month as Christmas, but that doesn't mean the two events were connected.

Verdict: Not only not debunked at present (n.b.), but it actually looks a good deal more robust than many critics are supposing.