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AUSTIN, TEXAS - The corridors, once
filled with bustling activity, now were quiet and dark. School
posters and lunch menus had been replaced by graffiti, and the men
who walked the hallways were not teachers, but contractors sent to
demolish the school. They would have problems; the dilapidated old
building was not as empty as it looked. Metz Elementary opened in 1916. That same year, the school board decided that Spanish-speaking children should attend a separate school. The board felt that the children would learn better if they had lessons in Spanish as well as English. Up until that time, the Mexican-American community in Austin had not formally protested any action taken by the school board, but many people from the neighborhood most affected appeared before the board to disagree with the decision. The proposed school would be several miles away, making transportation difficult for the children and their parents; there was also a concern that if the Spanish-speaking students were segregated, they would not have the same opportunities as the those who spoke English. While the board never formally backed down from its position, Spanish-speaking students who attended the nearby school, Metz Elementary, were never asked to leave or to attend the other school, and after a period of time, the matter was quietly dropped. |
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Metz Elementary served the community through the better part of eight decades, but by 1989 the school was considered too small to meet the growing needs of the surrounding neighborhood. The decision was reached to tear down the structure and build a new and bigger school in its place. The crew who arrived to do the work did not anticipate any problems; there appeared to be nothing difficult about demolishing the crumbling structure. However, they realized from the
first day that someone or something wanted to make the job almost
impossible. The first strange thing was hearing the sound of
children's laughter when they had assured themselves that the
condemned building was empty. Then they saw writing on the
blackboards when no one had been nearby. Equipment that had been
running perfectly before reaching the site broke down. Bulldozers
and trucks stalled out for no discernable reason, and even workmen's
watches would suddenly stop running while they attempted to pull
down the school's walls. Understandably, men begin to quit or just
not show up for work, but the construction company refused to give
in to supernatural pressure. They continued trying to work even as
strange accidents plagued them. Finally, after a workman was fatally
injured in a wall collapse, a clergyman was brought in to bless the
building and the area was leveled. The odd occurrences made national
news, and the Metz School Mystery has been puzzled over by curious
people nationwide.
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