Brooklyn High School (Ohio)

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Brooklyn High School is a public high school located in Brooklyn, Ohio. It is the only high school in the Brooklyn City School District.

The school colors are royal blue and gold. The sports teams are nicknamed the Hurricanes or the 'Canes. The school is a member of the Patriot Athletic Conference (PAC-10).

The diversity of the school is well known. The most common are the "wiggers" or so called "wanna be gangstas." Many of these walk around the school, and act "hard." Brooklyn has grown to be a more and more diverse school, but that has created its downfall as the more "gangstas" the more the IQ level of Brooklyn High School drops.

1 Clarence
2 Elvis visit
3 External links
4 Notes and references

[edit] Clarence

BHS is home to the ghost of a janitor, "Clarence", who worked at the school in the 1950s. He is said to have fallen from the balcony in the auditorium. Some students claim to have seen bloodstains on the chairs and heard noises when in the auditorium at night. Teachers also subscribe to this myth by 'asking permission' of Clarence before every musical, band and chorus concert, or other performance that takes place in the auditorium. Legend has it that Clarence will ruin any performance for which permission is not requested, as he did one year by turning off all the lights. No other cause could be found for this sudden outage. ^[1]

Clarence is actually an old superintendent of BHS, Clarence L. Rice, whose office was located near the balcony of the theatre. During his time in the school system he was a big supporter of the arts and theatre in particular, and was known to sit in the balcony during performances, where today many of the sounds are said to originate.

His presence was first documented in the mid-80's when, during a late night of painting and set construction, the auditorium lights all turned off. After finding a janitor to open up the light room (which had been locked all evening), it was discovered that the light board was not only turned off, but unplugged and missing the necessary main key for operating. Therefore, the lights should never have been on in the first place (for over six hours.) The adults who witnessed the event explained it as a 'power surge.' People in the know realized there was something else involved and discovered the presence of Clarence.

During this time, many students would dismiss the idea of a theatre ghost, but anyone who publicly declared their disbelief (especially in the theatre itself) would usually end up believing after being tripped during a play, having their stand knocked over during a performance, or even falling off the stage during a rehearsal. Clarence's favorite tricks still involved the lights and lighting system, however, and this would be the most common problem during public performances. This is when the tradition of 'asking permission to perform' came to be, and is still carried on to this day.

[edit] Elvis visit

The school gained notoriety on October 20, 1955, when Elvis Presley performed in their auditorium. It was the first ever concert Elvis performed in the northern United States. ^[2] It is also believed to be the first filmed concert in Elvis' career. It would be nearly a year before he appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show for the first time.

Elvis was not the headliner at the concert organized by legendary Cleveland DJ Bill Randle. The other, more popular performers were Bill Haley & His Comets, The Four Lads, and Pat Boone.

On October 20, 2005, some of the acts returned to participate in an anniversary event for this visit. Among the acts were Priscilla Wright, and Bill Haley's Original Comets. The BHS Chorale also performed a song with Priscilla Wright.