As The Raven Dreams Podcast - ATRD Ep. 180 - Scary School & Cult Stories

Episode Date: June 22, 2025

Today, on the 180th episode of the As The Raven Dreams podcast, we have 6 True Chilling stories. These stories come from the shadowy corners of reality, where everyday life takes an eerie twist & ordinary people experience the extraordinary. Today we will be diving into some of the terrifying things that happen in everyday school life, and some terrifying stories involving Cults. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to like or rate the podcast, and leave me a comment with your thoughts if the platform your own supports it! Scary story episodes 2 to 3 times a week (New stories On Wed/Fri, Comps/remasters on Sundays) If you have a story to submit, would like to find where to listen to the podcast, or want to find me on social media platforms, all of that info can be found at https://www.astheravendreams.com You can also send stories into my subreddit (r/theravensdream) or email them to me at [e-mail] Want to check out some ATRD Podcast Merch? ➤ https://teechip.com/stores/astheravendreams Or for signed merch ➤ https://ko-fi.com/AsTheRavenDreams I wrote a novel, "The Insomniac's Experiment" by Raven Adams! Check it out on amazon (Or you can email me for a signed copy!) Join Patreon to get early access and support the Podcast! ➤ https://www.patreon.com/AsTheRavenDreams Check out my gaming channel with my pal Ghost_Ink ➤ @superNefariousBros On YouTube Disclaimer ➤ Episodes include a content warning for language and sensitive/disturbing content. Listener discretion is always advised. ALL Audio and visuals on this podcast are copyright of AS THE RAVEN DREAMS / RAVEN ADAMS and may not be duplicated, in any format. Bless This Mess. #AsTheRavenDreams #TrueScaryStories #GlitchInTheMatrix Thank you to all of the authors that have stories in todays episode... Millennial_Girl. Bartery, Mike Robindon, Hidden Fox, KindOfGullible,Tom K. As Well As Any Author That Has Requested Anonymity. TimeStamps… Ads after Story 1 and Story 3 1 ➤ 0:50 2 ➤ 17:23 3 ➤ 35:12 4 ➤ 42:20 5 ➤ 1:05:16 6 ➤ 1:10:01 ----- #TrueScaryStories #AsTheRavenDreams #GlitchInTheMatrix #RedditStories And Remember; You are loved, you are important, and you are valid. Never let anyone tell you otherwise. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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depot minimum of $10. DePosososos $10 dollars. The conditions apply. Good evening, my friends. Hopefully you're all doing wonderfully on this late Sunday afternoon. If not, I hope the day turns around for you, and the rest of your week goes swimmingly. Today we have an interesting collection of stories.

We have some school and college stories, mostly schools. I mean, they're kind of the same thing, right? School stories. We have school stories, and then we also have a couple of cult-based stories. One of them is a write-up by my good friend Tom. It's about a cult that's actually pretty interesting, so hopefully you enjoy that as well. All that, friends? Hope again, you have a beautiful rest of your weekend, hopefully you have a great week ahead of you.

Nope, I see you again here very soon. But until then, please, enjoy. Hello, this is the first time that I've done something like this, writing up my story in this sense, so I apologize if it reads funny or if I may jump around. But I wanted to share a story about something that happened to me my freshman year of high school. I went to a pretty normal high school. I was the oldest of three kids, and therefore, when I started high school, I had no siblings there to lean on. I had no cousins, so the only people that I knew that would be there were my friends.

They were just as nervous as I was to attend a new school. I did okay in school, though. I got A's and B's, except a C. in chemistry because I hated chemistry, but otherwise I would say I was a pretty good student. At the time of this event, I was 15 years old. My English teacher went on maternity leave in October, and we had a few rotating substitutes for the first two weeks, and then we finally had a permanent sub, if that's even a thing. I refer to him as Mr. Miles. He was going to be our sub until our normal English teacher returned the next semester.

He was probably in his early to mid-30s. He didn't dress old like a lot of the other teachers and was immediately popular with the students because he was, quote, chill, compared to the other teachers as well. He wasn't as strict when it came to deadlines, homework, or even having our phones out in class. He even gave us time at the beginning of each class to finish homework if we didn't get it done. If we finished class early, he didn't care if we had our phones out listening to music or playing a game on it. He would sit on the edge of his desk instead of behind it and talked to us all like we were his equals.

At first, I thought he was one of those kinds of teachers trying to connect with students. That wasn't an uncommon thing. There were a few teachers that tried to approach, and sometimes it worked. But looking back, I should have noticed how he said, singled out certain students' attention, especially me. I was going through a rough time that school year. My parents had been fighting a lot lately. I was seeing my dad a lot less, and less to the point where he even stopped coming home.

I didn't know if it was work, or if that's why they were fighting, or if he was going to leave us, or if mom had just kicked him out. Whatever the reason, he was rarely home at that point. Then over that summer, my parents finally explained how they were getting a divorce. It wasn't our fault. They both loved us, and all the other colors that come with it. Even though I knew things weren't right, I was still devastated. I loved both of my parents and was close to them,

but when they finally broke the news to us, I guess it gave my dad permission to leave for good and never bothered to come back to see us. He barely called anymore, and when he did, it was awkward small talk. He called on my birthday, which was in September, and asked me about how my summer vacation went. That's how long it had been since I had spoken with him. It hit me pretty hard at that age.

My two siblings were a lot younger, so maybe they didn't fully understand, but I certainly did. And having a parent you look up to, just leave and not bother to do anything with you, and then decline any offers you make to see them hurts, pretty bad. So, needless to say, I was stressed and my grades were slipping. I had trouble caring about schoolwork because he wasn't there to encourage me or tell me how

proud he was. Sure, my mom did, but she was stretched so thin now taking care of the three of us, and working that she couldn't devote as much attention to us. I didn't talk as much in school. I wasn't the chipper and normal giggly self, either. I just did what I could and went home. To my surprise, however, Mr. Miles seemed to notice the change in my demeanor as well. As we were leaving, he asked me to stay behind for a moment saying that he had a question about a paper I turned in.

To my surprise, he asked if I was okay, mentioning how I seemed down. I didn't realize just how much I was holding in because I broke. I told him about my parents' divorce and how my dad never calls and how it made me feel. Mr. Miles was sympathetic, and he told me how his parents had divorced when he was in high school, too, so he totally understood what I was going through. He had some encouraging words for me, trying to explain that things will get better. I calmed down, thanked him for the words, and as I was leaving, he handed me a post-it note with a phone number on.

it. He said any time I needed to talk, I could call him or text him if that's easier. I thanked him and left. On the way home, I texted him and told him who I was and thanked him for talking with me. I could see how desperately I was craving some kind of father figure in my life, and nowadays, I know that that was the hook and he knew it too. My dad had basically disappeared, and he was a kind male figure who seemed to actually care about what I was going through. And to be honest, it felt good to have a male adult who actually wanted to listen to me. At the time, it didn't seem weird at all. Our school counselor didn't have much to say or many solutions, other than the normal,

it's not your fault. It'll get better, just cheer up. I also knew other teachers who gave students their contact info, friends. any homework questions, so it wasn't unusual in my eyes. At first, our text were exactly what I needed. He would ask how I was doing, how classes were going, and even how my siblings were. I would vent about my mom working late or classes that I struggled with. He would give me advice that seemed wise and thoughtful, and I even started looking at him as a

mentor that I clearly needed. But, after about two weeks, weeks, something changed. He started texting me almost daily, and even when I hadn't reached out first, like even on weekends, especially on the weekends. At first it was just checking in, asking about my day, and then he started sending me memes or song recommendations. None of them were inappropriate, though, but it still started feeling less like mentorship

and more like something else. Possibly a friendship? Is maybe what I was thinking. I was a kid and it still seemed okay, but now I know that adults don't make friends with kids. Shortly after the text started coming in at more inappropriate times. I would get them late at night,

all days of the week. What are you up to? Can't sleep. Are you still awake? One night, around midnight, even said that he had watched a movie that reminded him of me. It was something that I had never heard of and don't remember.

I was starting to feel a little uncomfortable about it, but I didn't know how to bring it up. To be honest, I was flattered by the attention, especially when everything else in my life felt so chaotic. Then there was one week that I stayed home for two days after feeling sick. I got a text for Mr. Miles saying that he was going to make a packet for my missed work for my mom to come pick up. I didn't respond because I didn't feel well,

and my mom already told me she was going to go pick up my schoolwork. While my mom was gone, I got another text from him that said, I wish I could bring you soup and take care of you. That one made me feel even worse, so I ignored it too. I was already feeling nauseated, and that did not help. Over the weekend, I started feeling better, but he continued to text me. He mentioned that if I was confused about any of the work, we could meet up somewhere and he would help me, and then offered to pick me up, too.

I told him that I was fine and that I didn't need any help, and he did seem to back off a bit, giving me my weekend to not think about it. But that following week at school, I finally understood that what was happening, happening here was not okay. It was not normal. Mr. Miles asked me to stay after class, to talk to me about my assignment, and my stomach was in knots. He asked me about the essay that we were writing and asked if I understood the topic. I was already done with my draft and turned it in, so what would I not have understood? But as he asked questions, I noticed that he was standing too close, or he would touch my shoulder or arm.

At one point, when he asked me how I was feeling, he rubbed my back, around the center, so not too low, thankfully. But maybe that was just because we were still at the school. That made me feel incredibly uncomfortable, so I backed away, saying I had to get to my next class. But he abused his power, knowing I was going to need a pass to my next class at this point, so he slowly went to his desk, rode a pass, all the while watching me, looking at me up and down. I had never felt so uncomfortable in my life. From then on, I knew that I needed to distance myself.

I didn't know what else to do. To my young self, I didn't know if what he was doing was really all that bad, or if I was just being overdramatic. Would my counselor take my concerns seriously? I tried going to her when I had troubles with the divorce and was basically told to suck it up. My mom had been so busy and absent that I didn't want to bother her with something that was seemingly just me overreacting.

So the only thing I thought I had left to do was just ignore his texts and try to avoid him at school. It all came to a head when I went to my locker during one of my classes to grab something. I heard Mr. Miles' voice calling my name and he approached my locker. He asked me about not responding to his texts,

and I just said that I had been busy. I tried to leave quickly after that, but he grabbed my arm, and let his hands slide down to mine, and then said that he had been worried about me. I yanked my hand away and told him to leave me alone and then ran back to my class. Later that same day,

my friend stopped me on our way to the buses, and she confronted me about Mr. Miles. She had apparently left her own class to use the restroom and saw us. She wanted to say hi to me, but she caught him grabbing my arm, and she was immediately scared. I didn't even think about bringing it up to my friends. I mean, what could they do about it? But I told her everything. I showed her the texts, and about him stopping me in the classroom, too.

She backed me up. She confirmed that everything I was feeling. was valid and that what he was doing was not okay, and was very disturbing. She even offered to go with me to tell my mom, but I told her that I would do it alone that night. I was terrified. Part of me felt guilty that I let it go on as long as I had. Part of me also felt bad that I could possibly cause him to lose his job, and that I was

betraying him, that he was supportive of me when my father wasn't, so was this really? the right thing to do? But my friend convinced me that there was no loyalty in that situation. It wasn't just a teacher caring for their student. What he was doing was predatory, and he'd crossed way too many lines. So, I told my mom. That night, I started asking her what to do in a hypothetical situation. And in that moment, no matter how busy she may have seemed, I knew that she was completely there

for me. Her face changed to a very concerned and worried look, and then asked if that was what was happening to me. I confirmed, but I left out that it was a teacher, until she asked for the person. That was the moment I felt bad. I knew that she was trying not to cry because I could see her eyes watering, but she apologized to me and told me that no matter what, I should always come to her for any concerns, especially. things like that. She told me that she would take care of it all

and not delete any of the text messages from him. The next day, she kept me home from school and I heard her on the phone a lot. I ended up staying home for the rest of that week, and my mom went and got my schoolwork. When I returned the next week,

we had a new English sub, and Mr. Miles was nowhere to be seen. I didn't know how any of that worked, so I thought maybe he just, just quit or got fired. It was odd for a few weeks, but then I started feeling better about things and my mom and I actually became a lot closer. But we were high school kids, and the rumors began to spread fast.

Multiple girls were called to the principal's office, one by one, including myself. So it was pretty obvious to me what was happening. I was not the only girl that he had been doing this to. My mom and I later had a pretty long and heartfelt conversation about the whole thing. She told me that he was a very sick man and that I was brave to speak up because many others were not. The part that scares me is that the main reason I did was because my other friend had encouraged me to. I wonder how long I would have suffered through it if she hadn't witnessed what happened. I later learned that he was fired.

and obviously lost his teaching license. After a lot of investigations and my mom taking me to some kind of courthouse or police station, he was even arrested and is now doing time. Clearly this kind of blew up, which is why I'm keeping names, dates, and details vague, because I don't want my info out there again. But he is actually still locked up, thankfully. It does give me some relief knowing that he can't do this to other girls, but it also terrifies me to think about what the police may have learned or found,

due to the fact that he is still in prison. However, since this experience, my relationship with my mom has really grown, and we became very close. I'm still great friends with the other one that helped me that day, and my dad is about the same, but I don't let it control my life either. As a young adult, I know what a healthy relationship is, and I now know how to spot red flags. All I can say is as a kid, no matter what age you are,

if someone makes you feel uncomfortable or makes you feel pressured, someone is out there to listen to you. Even if it doesn't seem like it, you are not alone. And if you have kids, please do take their concerns seriously. They're coming to you for help because you should be their protector. Don't wait until it may be too late. I wanted to share something that happened to me when I was a teenager, trying to make my own money. This was way back before cell phones and computers,

where I would get the paper and sit there for hours circling and crossing out the classified section. Just to show you the approximate decade that we're talking about here, I was going to be starting college in the fall, and I was broke. I had a part-time job but wasn't making much money there. I was hoping to save up some before starting college so that I had some free time. I wanted to enjoy my college days and was not liking the idea of only ever having time to go to class and work. I wanted to find a summer job that made a decent amount of money. So, I was scouring that paper trying to find a summer job.

find anything I could. Eventually, I did find one that, to be honest, seemed too good to be true, and I should have stopped and listened to myself there. It was listed as a retreat guide for a spiritual retreat center. The pay was given in a lump sum, and at the end of the time, because it was going to be two months long, starting in mid-June and ending in mid-August. At the time, I thought it was a good deal because, while you did have to stay there for the duration,

they covered the cost of your room, food, and entertainment. To me, it sounded like a free vacation, and I would get paid for it. So, yeah, being naive, I jumped on the opportunity. My dad thought that it sounded nice. My mom was a little curious at first because she had never heard of the retreat before and wasn't familiar with it. But my dad and I both convinced her that it was fine.

She was worried about her young daughter going camping with strangers, but I explained that it was a spiritual retreat, so I was expecting it to be religious. My family wasn't exactly church people, but they believed in something, so I think that convinced them too that I would be in good hands. I gave them a call to set up an interview, and they asked me to come in that same day. I rushed to get ready and make myself presentable, and then met them in a small building with a sign above it that said something like the awakening center. Inside, the building looked kind of empty, but I was greeted by a middle-aged woman in a white sun dress. She introduced herself and apologized for the shape of the building as she said they were just getting moved into it, which did make sense. The entrance had a small desk that she was at with two folding chairs in front of the desk. There was a plant in the corner and a sign directing people to the auditorium in the back.

The interview was quick and seemed more centered around my soft skills. She wanted to know if I was capable of doing manual labor, such as cleaning, picking things up, and maybe even assisting with some construction. I was honest and explained that I had never done any kind of construction work. I was a 19-year-old girl. But I did say that I was willing to learn. She also went over how having an open mind was a must with people, and again, I just took it at face value, since it was called The Awakening. I figured it was religious, and maybe not even one that I was interested in. Hey, I was just there to work for them. I didn't care what they believed in.

She seemed satisfied with my answers, and to my surprise, she hired me on the spot. She gave me an ID of sorts to use while I was there and directions to the grounds they would be using, and said that she would give me more of a rundown when I arrived. I went home ecstatic that I got the job so easily, and began preparing my bags for what I wanted to take. Approaching the grounds, there was a large gravel area in the front, where there were several cars parked, including a van with the same logo on it.

Behind it was a cabin-like building with a tall wooden privacy fence surrounding it so you couldn't see in the back. To my surprise, the woman that had interviewed me, who I'll call Beth, was sitting on the porch with a handful of pamphlets and a clipboard. I watched her write something down when a man walked up and motioned him inside.

When I walked up to her, she gave me a quick rundown of the place, plans for the day, and led me inside after having someone else cover for her spot. That's when I noticed everyone in there was wearing white. The women in white dresses, the men in white pants and a shirt. I assumed it was part of the uniform or required attire. It wasn't my business either way. Anyway, Beth first showed me to my room in that same building that was down a long hallway.

There was a bunk bed, and she said that the other helpers would be bunking with me. I was a little disappointed, thinking I would have my own place, but I couldn't complain. It was all paid for. Once I sat my bags down, she asked me for my size so that she could get me my clothes. I mentioned that I had brought my own, but she said they had uniforms you had to wear. Again, I just thought, of course, probably to tell the staff apart, and then when I wasn't working, I could wear my own clothes while I explored. She then led me around the rest of the building that included a large dining area, the kitchen.

She showed me where the supply closets were and went through the rules along the way. After all the touring, we were then at the back of the building, and she said that she would show me the, quote, living grounds, as she put it. She looked pretty excited to show me. So I assumed the back must have been where all the fun started. stuff was. The back walls were lined with smaller cabins. From the outside, they were probably big enough to fit a small bedroom and bathroom, and

that's it. So I guess you were expected to have dinner in the cafeteria. I did see a trail that went into the trees in the back, and dead center was a large gazebo-like area that Beth explained was their meditation hall. She said they gathered there three times a day, and that was their quality. quiet hours. No one was to talk, eat, use the bathroom, etc. during that time, as it was their chance to reconnect with their true nature and the cosmic energy that binds us all, or something to that effect. I assumed that would be my own time to do whatever I wanted in my room, so I didn't

disturb them. After the tour, Beth took me back to my room where someone had placed some kind of uniform on the desk, and Beth told me I could get changed and meet her in the kitchen. That was the first moment I'd had to myself, to really gather my thoughts and take it all in. I didn't know a single person there, but everyone seemed nice. Everyone I saw was probably middle-aged or so. I saw a few people there with kids, at least two younger people and some that were old enough to be my grandparents. But everyone smiled and waved as we walked around, and they held the doors open for us, so I felt comfortable. I didn't feel like I was about to be treated like some lowly worker, and I thought

maybe this came with the territory, with their religion and mission. I changed into their uniform, which oddly enough was a plain white dress, much like Beth's. I did think it was strange, especially if they expected me to do more strenious labor, but I didn't think too much on it. I was honestly still pretty excited about the whole situation. Dinner was a bit different than I was used to. They called out that they did not consume any meat or animal products, and all the produce they had was grown in their own gardens.

This made sense because it was just a vegetable soup with bread and a salad. It did taste pretty good, though. Afterwards, they went to the gazebo for meditation, and I started walking toward my room and noticed a lot of people watching me at that point, with raised eyebrows. I thought it was weird, and I didn't know why I was being watched, but I just continued on my way. From then on, I learned pretty quickly that I was not there to simply work for them.

This was their way to get more followers in the door. No one came to get me the rest of that night, but the following morning, Beth was at my door looking disappointed. She asked me why I wasn't at the meditation, and I mentioned it wasn't my thing, and I figured that I shouldn't bother them. She told me that everyone was required to attend, staff included. I told her that I wasn't interested, but she very sternly told me that it wasn't an option, and if I didn't attend, I would have to leave. Being prideful and already wasting the time going out there, I finally agreed to attend. I figured I could just grin and bear it and move on.

But I didn't realize, until that morning after breakfast, that it lasted for two hours. Two hours, we all crammed ourselves into this gazebo, in the hot summer sun, sitting silently cross-legged with our eyes closed. I would peek around and see a few people, like Beth walking around the perimeter and making hand motions to the others doing the same. That was the first time I was kind of scared. Why were they watching us so hard?

Why would it matter if someone didn't do this? At the end of each session, a man would come out and talk to all of us. I assume this was the leader or past, or whatever they called him. He mentioned at the first one I attended that he had a spiritual awakening after a near-death experience. And since then, he felt it was a sign

to help others awaken to their cosmic consciousness. This was sounding a bit more out there than what I was expecting. But once again, being 19, I thought I could get through it, make my money, and then just never see these people again. But again, things would escalate, and I started to feel unsafe. Between the painfully long meditations, I would then quickly have to help clean and prepare for dinner.

They only served breakfast and dinner. And if I didn't do something completely accurate, like using too much soap, I would be reprimanded. If I woke up late or took too long to get ready, I would be reprimanded. and their choice of punishment was typically either an extra meditation session or a skipped meal. They didn't have snacks or extra things like fat to eat, so there were a few days that I went with only one meal. I also finally got a roommate, but to both of our surprise, it was a guy that was four years older than me. He had also applied for a job and ended up here, but had to start late. At first, I was scared and confused that they would bunk me with a man, given their whole situation here.

All the cabins were separated, unless there were couples there, so why would they bunk us together? Did they not have separate living quarters? Thankfully, after talking to the guy, he also thought it was really weird and we seemed to be the only two people questioning any of this. So, after explaining to him some of the things I had witnessed, we kind of. began to watch out for one another. It was a few more grueling weeks of this, the meditation speech becoming more of an indoctrination of sorts. The lack of a good meal,

because, let's face it, you can only cook potatoes and carrots in so many ways, was starting to get to me. But then, one night, I saw something that told me I needed to get out of there before something happened to me. In Sunday night, we had a gathering that once again everyone had to attend. But this time, the leader talked about how to gain their awakened consciousness and referred to his experience.

A man in the audience was brought to the podium with him and lied on a table beside the leader. The man explained that to understand, you must first die. Yes, he said you had to die. And everyone nodded, and they were all acting like this was the most sane thing that someone had ever said. When the leader was done speaking, he was handed a white cloth, twisted like a rope. He dipped it into a bowl of water, and then I watched as he wrapped it around this man's neck. I don't need to say more about what I witnessed. But after it was all said and done, he hit him on the chest several times.

And one of the woman helper standing nearby joined him in hitting, shaking, and smacking the man until he finally gasped. I was terrified. I just watched these people nearly kill a man and for what? I couldn't take it anymore. I didn't want to witness this and I was already fearing for my safety. Once back in my room, I started crying and my roommate helped to comfort me and told me that I should leave. I told him that he should come with me because I was worried for him too, but he refused. He said that he would help me to make sure.

sure that I got out okay, but that he would stay, because he wanted to take all this to the police. Clearly, he had been duped just like I had. They didn't need help. They needed victims. That night, I packed my bag and he followed me out the front door when Beth stopped us. She said that I wasn't allowed to leave in the middle of their retreat. Before I could say anything, the man argued with her that I was too young to be here. She tried to threatened me about the money, saying that I wouldn't get any of it, and I told her that I didn't want it.

She then said that I wasn't allowed to copy any part of the retreat for my own benefit, and I laughed at that statement. Why the hell would I want any part of that? The man stood between Beth and I, telling me to go, and I didn't

hesitate any longer. I left that building, tossed my bag in my back seat, and burned out of there without looking back. I drove home and cried in my confused parents' arms. I explained everything to them, what they did, the meditations, the uniforms, the strangling, and even the man that had helped me escape. And I felt guilty at that point.

My mom immediately took me to the police station to report it. While there, they seemed skeptical at first, but as my mom pushed me to give them every little detail that I could think of, The cop seemed to begin taking me seriously. They said that they would look into it, took down our contact information, and then we left. I didn't hear much about what happened to the place after that. I know from my parents and from around the area that the cops did show up and ask about it, and the owners.

I presume the leader told them that everyone was there willingly for a retreat, and when the cop asked if anyone wanted to leave, there were only two people that did. I don't know who it was, but I do hope that that man was one of them. But because no one was saying that they were being held there, they couldn't or wouldn't do anything further. I never heard from or about that man again,

but I'm incredibly thankful that he gave me the courage to finally leave and to help me. I had already been there for about a month, and about a week in, he was already seeing everything wrong with the situation and was willing to risk his own safety to get me out of there. And for that, I hope he's doing okay. Clearly, it's been multiple decades since this took place, but it's definitely opened my eyes to some of the monsters that we may not recognize.

I didn't take on any other odd jobs like that, and eventually, I settled on B. being a cleaner and stay-at-home mom, and it does fit me a lot better. I know finding jobs is a lot different nowadays, but to anyone out there desperate to find a job, especially younger people, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is. And if you ever feel unsafe in a job or situation, get out of there fast, because a legitimate business would never threaten your safety. I have a story that happened back in the very early 2000s, like 01 or 02.

It happened back when I was in sixth grade, so I would have been around 11 or 12 when it happened. It was an absolutely crazy thing that happened that didn't make sense to me back then, and really it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me now, but I guess I can mentally understand what happened. Not really the why, though. The school I went to wasn't a bad school. In fact, it was one of the better schools in the area, but there was this one kid that was in my class that had issues. I think that's the best way to put it without actually knowing specifics

about what was actually wrong with him. His name was Dan, and he was a bit off. We all knew that he had the issues he had, but also this was just a different time, so I think the school basically just wanted to treat him like every other kid and make adjustments if it became a problem. One thing I remember about him was that he would just go silent and stare at people with this intensity that was actually unsettling.

I personally knew that he'd had a run-in with another student at least once. It wasn't violent to the point of expulsion, but I remember that he got suspended for a few days because of what had happened. I'm not sure if that's relevant to anything, but I think it paints a bit of a picture. He was a bit threatening. He hadn't been violent, but he definitely was not what most would consider a normal kid. So now that you know a bit about Dan, here is what happened. I'm sorry if this is formatted weird, as I'm a bit iffy on how to explain it properly without the timeline of events,

when it happened versus when we all found out. One day when we were all filtering into the school off the bus, things were a bit different than normal. Normally we were allowed to wait out front until the first bell rang, and then we would go to class. On that day, we were immediately ushered off the bus by some of the education assistants, and we were told to go directly to our classrooms.

It was really strange to me at the time, there had never been a day where they had done anything like that as far as I could remember. We were all rushed into the classrooms, told to put our bags down and sit at our desks, and then told that things would be explained in a little while. We all did as we were told and sat there whispering amongst ourselves, trying to figure out what was going on. At one point, our teacher, Ms. Evans, was talking to us about the morning, asking us questions, asking whether or not we knew what was going on. None of us did.

I think she was fishing for information to see if any of us were in the know about the event, and after a while she told us that there had been an incident and that it was going to be explained. Not long after that, the principal, Mr. Thompson, came over the intercom and filled in some of the blanks. He announced that one of the janitors, an older man named Freddie, had been injured, and explained that the police were going to be investigating the situation. He told us that we were all safe,

but then basically stated that we were all expected to stay in our classrooms until told otherwise. That day, we had indoor recess. We stayed in the classroom through the entire day, not even having gym class. We just stayed in the classroom and got an extra recess. As it always goes, though, the information did get, out, and other students heard about what happened, and it spread pretty quickly. It came alongside the fact that I noticed that Dan wasn't in class those two days.

So, here's what I've been told about what went down. That morning, where we were all herded into our classrooms, the janitor Freddie had been attacked, and he had been attacked by Dan. It happened early in the morning, before anyone else, had been at the school. Somehow, in a way that I've literally never heard an explanation for, Dan was in the school all night, and he was found by Freddy in the morning when he came in.

Dan had apparently stuck out the entire night of the school in one of the janitorial storage areas. I have no idea why he did that, other than he could and just did, but he did. In the morning, Freddy showed up to start the day, and he opened the storage room and he and Dan had surprised each other. Dan being who he was, attacked Freddy with something from the closet.

We never found out what. He just attacked this old man knocking him down and beating him. All of this was caught on camera. Mind you, it was the early aughts, so they weren't the best quality, but they had footage of it happening, and then of Dan running out of the school. The police ended up. up finding him hiding out on the school grounds, in the small baseball diamond on the property.

The school went into lockdown for a while, those two days, mostly because they didn't know if this was a planned thing or if anyone else was in on it. When they decided that no one else was in on it, things went back to normal. The police investigation revealed that Dan had been struggling with some serious mental health issues. He'd been having violent thoughts for a long time, and he had never received the help that he needed. They said it was a sudden outburst, but it felt like something that had been brewing for years. I don't think anyone ever figured out why he spent the night at the school, but it was pretty much why this happened. The whole thing was incredibly disturbing.

It shook the entire school community, and it made us realize that even in a place where we felt safe, bad things could happen. Freddie did end up making it, but he retired after this happened. I don't think anyone could blame him. The guy had been doing the job for years, and then some random kid jumped out of the storage closet at him. The poor guy was just getting to work, and this is what happened. I don't know what all happened to Dan. Obviously, the police were involved, and he had committed a pretty serious battery on someone. In the end, I just kind of hope that he got the head.

help he needed, because he definitely had something wrong with him, and this was just the worst possible outcome of what could have happened. Today we have a write-up on the Hill Songs Fall from Grace, written by good friend of mine Tom Kay. As such, some of the opinionated words or subjective statements made in the beginning are his and not necessarily mine. I just want to make that clear. This one will certainly be a convoluted one.

as I do have some of my own reasons for being interested in this particular story, or scandal, as it were. It may come as a surprise to some of you that I'm not a terribly religious person. However, my family is a different story altogether. So, back in the late 2000s, my parents and sister actually were involved with a church called North Point Church. Now, I'm going to start this off with a little section about NPC and some of the children. of the things I ultimately ended up learning about them, and how all of this connects back to Hillsong. Sometime around 2006, my parents had discovered a brand-new church in town that was really

making a name for itself, kind of overnight. Everyone was really hyped up by the incredibly positive services that were full of very upbeat music. My sister even told me that it was more like going to a rock concert than a church. My parents had tried multiple times to get me to accompany them, but I never really have been much for going to church. However, in 2009, I found myself at a low point, and I ended up taking my parents up on their invitation to come to a service.

The first thing I noticed was that this certainly was not a typical church building. If anything, it looked like a large version of a pole barn that had been enclosed, and then had some interior work put in. Nothing that a solid crew couldn't come in and have taken down in time for the cattle auction should the need ever arise. But the auditorium was definitely its own kind of spectacle. With a very large stage and lighting displays that would have made any rock band envious, lots of laser lights and intricate displays.

I couldn't dispute the fact that the services were indeed very uplifting and positive, The pastor was incredibly charismatic and had a way of making you feel a part of something so much bigger than yourself. It was a very nice thing at first. I even started throwing into the collection plate from time to time as I was able to do so. I wasn't going every week or anything, and after a couple of months, I started getting more invested in other things, and I kind of fell off going. Not too long after my last time of attending, my parents stopped inviting me. They stopped attending regularly, and they seemed much less excited about going. My sister was friends with one of the administrators' daughters, and at some point she kind of

pulled me aside and started filling me in on some things. First, she started telling me why they had gradually started becoming less involved with NPC, was because the services started becoming less positive. Over time, they had become a lot darker, and were hyper-focusing on certain things such as deception and infidelity. The more this became a trend, the more my family had kind of walked away when they did. My sister, however, maintained her friendship with the admin's daughter, and she got some really juicy bits of information that later on came out, and,

scandalized the entire church and compromised its entire future. You see, there was a certain amount of tongue and cheek in some of those very on-the-nose sermons. It started becoming a known thing amongst the administrators that the pastor was, in fact, conducting multiple affairs with married women. By the time things were becoming public enough that it was a full-blown scandal, it was even deeper than just some extramarital affairs. The pastor, the pastor, was building a harem, a stated goal. While this was happening, other members of the administration were lining their pockets with money from the church's coffers while pretending to look the other way at the pastor's

dalliances. Now, I feel like I should take a minute here to explain that, prior to all of this scandalous stuff coming out, it was common knowledge that NPC was, in fact, trying to get into Hillsong's worldwide network. Everything about the church from its earliest days was directly modeled on Hillsong, and they had opened a second church and were trying to turn it into an entire campus, much as Hillsong had in their major locations, such as New York. So, having all this in my head and hearing about the sheer scandal of the corruption

at the highest ranks of this, what at the time was a rapidly expanding church, it really gave me pause. If this kind of thing was going on to the extent that it was, how could they possibly hope to become part of this massive worldwide church? And sadly, the answer to that is, what was going on at NPC was pretty par the course, and in many ways far more tame than what would later be found out about the going on's within Hillsong.

Now, I'm not going to sit here and inundate you with the entire history of Hillsong. But I will give a brief explanation because I'm sure at least some of the people hearing this no little, if anything, about Hillsong. So, I'll offer an outline here. In 1984, Brian Houston and his wife, Bobby, founded Hills Christian Life Center

in Balkam Hills, New South Wales, Australia. Over the course of the 80s and 90s, the Hills CLC, rapidly began to grow into a megachurch. What primarily fueled this astonishing growth was a huge influx of young people who were attracted to the church's contemporary brand of worship music. They also began very early on to cede other churches internationally, which also helped bolster the size and the reach of Hill's CLC.

The primary draw has always been the music of Hill's CLC. In fact, the name Hill's song was originally the name of the band. that performed at the services. But the music became such a driving force behind the growth of the church and became so synonymous with the church that it officially rebranded as Hillsong. The church even has its own brand,

Hillsong Music, Australia, which produces all of the music associated with the church and its subsidiaries. They have produced no fewer than 40 albums since 1992. Hill Song Live, later renamed Hillsong Worship, produced albums that all achieved gold status. The entire operation helps sustain the church and its constant global expansion. Such a driving force in their revenue stream that Hill Force music has sold more than 60 million albums

and earns in the ballpark of $100 million a year. One of the ways that Hillsong has entrenched itself with modern worship is by licensing its music to other churches all over the world. If you've attended a Christian religious service any time since 2014, and the music was memorable and not exactly in the traditional hymnal style, then you've probably experienced Hillsong music, and never stepped foot in a Hillsong church. The Hillsong campus in New York is one of the largest in the world,

and whoever provides over-the-world-famous service, is kind of a celebrity in their own right by default. Carl Lentz really took the Hillsong brand to a whole different level during his tenure at Hillsong NYC. He was young, very charismatic, and had a way of connecting with the audience in a way that felt like every word he said was being spoken directly to you and only you.

The sermons themselves were very powerful and moving, and everything about Carl just drew you in and made you want to trust him. In many ways, that would probably be considered the first red flag. He very much was that X factor, always quick with a joke, and was just overall very magnetic and approachable kind of guy. Though it was also very clear that he cared a lot about his appearance and presentation. Carl always dressed well.

His style was trendy, and you could tell that he spent no small amount of time staying in shape. Carl Lentz wasn't the only incredibly charismatic member of the church, though. Of course, the main point of contact in any church, especially one as large as Hillsong NYC, will be the other parishioners. And Hillsong, NYC hosts one of the most diverse congregations anywhere in the world. Just showing up for a service, the people make you feel like you have. have always belonged there. Then, of course, are the welcome teams.

Once you arrive, these people will do everything they can to make you feel, well, welcome. The sheer amount of positivity could possibly be overwhelming for some people. Carl Lentz is also highly memorable for his close relationship with Justin Bieber. During a time where being closely associated with the Bebes was kind of toxic for your image, Carl Lentz did not shy away from the troubled young man. In fact, he became something of a mentor to Justin. This could be seen as incredibly symbiotic as far as relationships go. For Justin, at a time when it really needed to seem like he was trying to improve himself,

the public relationship with Carl Lentz was exactly what he needed. And for Carl to be around someone as in the mainstream public eye as Justin Bieber was, only pushed Hillsong more into that same mainstream flow. Now, millions of Justin Bieber fans were getting exposed to Carl Lentz, and that made them once to be a part of the same church as their icon. Some people even say that at a certain point, Carl Lentz became more synonymous with Hillsong than Brian Houston. That's just how powerful his charisma was.

Not to mention Carl was now the pastor to the site, celebrities. Justin Bieber was just the first of a number of famous people who began to attend Hillsong regularly. Eventually, there was even a VIP section for the celebrity parishioners to kind of have their own little space, effectively turning the church into a tiered society. At the time, Hillsong NYC was pulling in more money than any other Hillsong location on the planet. But the rifts that began to form.

between Brian and Carl would ultimately expose more corruption than anyone ever thought possible. Things had started racing towards a moment of critical mass that was going to leave the world in shock. All the warning signs were there. Carl was becoming more arrogant and full of himself. In his own way, Carl had become a cult leader to a lot of young people. There were clearly a lot of people that idolized him. They were dressing like him, trying to emulate him? Growing beyond the megachurch that he had taken into the stratosphere, Carl Lentz was now the most recognizable figure associated with the worldwide ministry of Hillsong.

When dealing with something like spirituality and religion, you have to be so incredibly careful of your entire message, your entire brand becoming too entangled with one person that has seemingly transcended the movement. Because, pastor or not, we are all human, and we are all one moment of poor judgment away from ruining our own lives and images, much less an entire religious organization. Carl Lentz was about to be an embodiment of this in all the worst possible ways, for himself, and especially for Hillsong. Prior to becoming the pastor of Hillsong, NYC, Carl Lens had attended Hillsong Bible College and, in Australia, where he met his wife, Laura.

After graduating Carl returned to his home in Virginia Beach, where he and Laura became the young adult pastors for Wave Church. The senior pastor there, Steve Kelly, worked at Hillsong Church for a decade before moving to Virginia Beach to become the senior pastor at Wave. As such, much of the style and structure of Wave was heavily influenced by Hillsong. Very early into Carl's tenure, things began to change.

The culture, the values, the very community began to change. The role he had been selected to fill really just began to shift. His style was vastly different from what the attendees had been used to. Carl liked to exercise a little bit of control over the congregation. When it came to relationships and dating, he especially had a litany of rules that he expected everyone to adhere to. Things such as date for a whole year before you have your first kiss.

Don't say I love you until you propose. While his predecessor had been more compassionate in understanding of relationship dynamics, Carl was not quite as gentle. He allegedly shamed couples, especially young women, who spoke to him in confidence about struggles with purity

or told him they had engaged in premarital sex. Early on in his time at wave, the recurring theme of sexual purity began to emerge in his sermons. This trend as well as his attitude towards sex and relationships would follow him into his service at Hillsong, NYC. Hence, over time, it became an even more frequent topic during his services. It ended up being quite telling, really. The entire topic came up so frequently that a lot of people hearing these sermons kind of began to feel that this was something he struggled with, especially when he would openly say that before he met Laura, he was a, quote, player.

In May of 2020, Carl began an extramarital affair with a woman named Rannan Karam, whom had actually attended Hillsong years prior. Everything ended up moving very fast and was very intense. Rannan and Carl were together for five months, during which time Carl manipulated and controlled this woman. If it wasn't convenient for him or not what he wanted, then it just did not happen. It became very clear that he was the star of his own show, and everyone else was just a bit player. Multiple times when Ronan set to end the relationship, Carl just would not let her walk away on her terms.

On November 4th of 2020, there was an announcement from Brian Houston saying that Carl Lentz was no longer part of Hillsong NYC. Carl reached out to tell the woman that he had been seeing that his wife knew, and the church knew, and that they had found out from his computer at his office. From there, Carl made a big post on Instagram, explaining everything that he and Laura had been both fired, despite Laura's conduct never having been an issue. During the final time that Ranan and Carl spoke, Lens told her that he had paid a lot of money to keep her name buried, so no one would know who she was and for her not to worry.

This did not really sit well with Ranan, who felt that Carl was trying to control her and dictate her story while denying her a chance to speak for herself. So Ranan contacted a reporter, and the fallout from this entire mess would leave few things untouched. Although Brian Houston and Hillsong were distancing themselves from Carl, and while Carl was the first one to come out and admit his adultery, to Brian Houston, he was far more vague with his wording in regards to Carl Lentz being fired.

You see, it turns out that Carl Lentz already had a reputation as a womanizer going back to his days at wave. Numerous people witnessed Carl making inappropriate advances towards women, or had their own experience with him acting inappropriately toward them. Also in the days following Carl Lent's dismissal, while Brian Houston had tried to say there had never been any indication of this kind of behavior from Carl, before the affair with Ranan came to light, there had been in fact multiple reports of sexual impropriety, brought against Carl Lentz by two former volunteers. The church, however, accused them of fabricating these allegations and dismissed them from their positions at Hillsong. A lot of people believe that, while there was no concrete

evidence to support this, Carl Lentz was eliminated because there were rumors that Laura and Carl were about to leave Hilsong, and Lens had become so much more popular than Brian, or the church itself, that he was going to take a huge number of people with him. And so, as kind of a parting shot, Brian Houston did his best to tarnish Carl's reputation, while trying to not make Hilsong look complicit in his immoral behavior, which it absolutely was. Because the entire time Carl was beneficial to, quote, the empire, Brian Houston and most of the Hillsong administrators were happy to rake in the cash that Carl had attracted to Hillsong and look the other way while Carl Lentz chased skirts and fame.

But the moment he might be leaving and taking money out of Hillsong's coffers, then he's fired for questionable leadership qualities and moral decision-making. I'm sorry to say that the entire scandal around Carl Lentz and his ultimate, if satisfying, downfall, is not the real end to this story. No, it really was just the first crack in the facade of Hillsong and its image. After it further came out that Carl Lentz had been involved in a second affair, and he admitted to having an Adderall addiction during his time at Hillsong, there were a lot more eyes on Brian Houston and the upper echelons of the Hillsong hierarchy. The very notion that Brian Houston,

the big boss of the largest church in the world, had no idea that things like this were going on, only made people more curious. Carl Lentz was the superstar of Hillsong, and if he had been engaged in things like extramarital affairs while entertaining an illicit drug habit, How could someone like Brian Houston not know these kind of things were going on? And now, the Berg starts to become more clear.

In the days that followed Carl Lentz's expulsion from the church, more and more stuff began to surface. Reports that ranged from mistreatment of volunteers, racism, sexual harassment, bullying were all becoming more common. Then, people began finding everything. evidence that a lot of the church money was being paid out. And the reason for these payments was to silence victims. It's silence victims?

Silence whose victims? Well, that would be Frank Houston's victims. I'm not going to dive into the atrocities that are said to have been committed by Frank Houston, nor the ones committed by Brian. I'll just begin wrapping this up by saying that because Brian Houston decided to fire Carl Lentz, in what could be considered an act of pettiness trying to cite the affairs with Rannon as the excuse, he ultimately set the stage for his own downfall. Brian Houston and a lot of people got very rich while looking the other way as people indulged

in despicable behaviors. Brian Houston also paid out a lot of money so people would overlook not only his father's horrific crimes, but inappropriate things that Brian Houston got up to as well. These days, Brian Houston is no longer the leader of Hillsong. When the crimes of his father, Frank, began coming to light, Brian Houston was arrested for his role in concealing these crimes. Houston resigned from his position as the global senior minister for Hillsong as a result of his arrest,

and has since stepped completely aside and ended all association with Hillsong, although he allegedly has plans to form a new church in a new community, which was supposed to have begun in 2024. At the time of this writing, there is no real word on if this is actually gone anywhere. In the case of institutions like Hillsong and, like, NPC, I think it's bitterly ironic that the second these places become a success, the instant they become a success, then they have failed. because as soon as a church, or more specifically, as soon as a man, hits a certain level,

and he can play jump rope with the line of morality and then just make his mistakes go away and, quote, make it right by spending a little money on shushing a victim and their family up, that does seem to be the path, even allegedly, righteous men walk. Although, I think calling men like Frank and Brian Houston or Carl Lent's truly righteous men is more than a little bit absurd. That all probably goes without saying, though. This event happened in late 2004. It was my senior year in high school, and I couldn't wait to graduate.

I went to a school called Winston Prep, which is located in the Union Square area, New York City. It's a special education school that goes from 6th to 12th grade. At an early age, I was diagnosed with severe ADHD and OCD. Some others were on the autism spectrum, excluding severe autism. I would mostly talk to the people who are like me, because we could understand social cues and be more normal than the others. My school never went by grades rather than disability, and we would have the same learning class with the same exact people.

I would mostly get along with everyone in my class. Everyone else was pretty friendly and acted normal, but there was this one guy who was really messed up in the head. His name was Quentin. I always saw him as a weird kid because he didn't have that many friends, and he would always stare at people, which included me. Besides that, I didn't really remember. only have any problems with him because he was a pretty chill dude, as I thought he was,

and I could actually have a conversation with him. There was this one day when my history teacher was talking about the 2004 presidential election because it was coming up, and George W. Bush was running again for president for the Republican party. I'm not trying to stereotype politics here, but it's known that Republicans are more lax when it comes to gun laws. Anyway, the teacher asked the whole class, who do you want to win for president? George W. Bush for the Republican Party

or John Kerry for the Democratic Party. When it was Quentin's turn, he said that he wanted Bush to win. He gave his reasons, but his main reason was gun laws. He said that everyone should protect themselves if they're armed with a gun. He then told the whole class that he had owned a bee, begun and planned on bringing it to school one day.

We all laughed and thought that he was joking, but later on in the semester that turned out to not be the case. One day, Quentin didn't come to class. I thought he was just sick, but I turned out to be wrong. It was 10 in the morning on a Tuesday, and I was already in my second class of the day. The day started off how it usually would. Five minutes into the class, we heard the lockdown siren go off. The teachers would usually inform us that we would have a lockdown drill, or a fire drill, the day before the drill.

But I knew for a fact that this was not a drill because they never informed us of it the day before. About 10 minutes into the lockdown, I heard a bunch of commotion outside of my classroom. I didn't know what was going on because the blinds were shut, and we weren't supposed to know because a real-life lockdown was taking place. I also kept hearing a bunch of lockers slamming as if someone was getting pushed into them. After that, we heard the stairway door open and then silence. I would say like three minutes later, the principal announced on the loudspeaker that the lockdown was over

and that school would be closing early that day because of our safe. I then exited the school and turned on my flip phone. I had a flip phone because this was before and iPhones came out. I would have it off during school because I didn't want to get it confiscated, and I did once to learn. I got a text from my friends saying, Dude, this is crazy. Quentin just got arrested for bringing a BB gun to school. I remember a month earlier, he said that he had planned on bringing it one day. Everyone else thought it was a joke, but he sure as hell was not joking.

I don't know what intentions he had with that BB gun, but logically, it was something not good. I was able to finish my senior year strong, and I'm currently an English teacher at a middle school. Overall, I don't know where Quentin is today, and I don't really care, but I'm fairly sure that his life went nowhere. Sometimes it's best to let sleeping dogs lie, leave Hornets' nests unkicked, and pretty much just leave the cages unrattled. The story is from high school back in 2010, during my sophomore year, and as always, it's a true story.

It's not a surprising fact that most of my electives' classes were computer-based, and by this point it's been well-established that I am somewhat of a computer person, and have come to know my way around computers quite well over the years. Part of the intrigue around computers was the process of making them do all kinds of cool things, especially when you finally figure out how. This was the motto of our CAD Design One class, where I found myself surrounded by people who, like me, found an interest in making computers do cool things.

I'm not the main person of this story, but it does center around a former friend of mine who we will call Mark. Mark was a quiet, loner type, who often hung out in the back of the classroom during CAD design class. From working with him on a group assignment, I learned that he always kept two project files open. And even during the lecture by our teacher, he would be typing away and creating all kinds of side projects.

The first half of the year we focused on basic computer functions, including some basic scripting and commands, so that when we began using the cat software issued to us by the cheap school district, we could make our lives easier. Most of the workarounds we were taught came from our teacher, Ms. Marsh, who was a former gamer girl that married her best friend and former gamer after college. and her husband was also quite the computer expert as well, so he taught her a few tricks too.

We took physical notes on paper, and a few of us wrote the scripts as text files on the computer and would copy and paste them when needed, or run them by converting the text files to command or batch format. If you don't know, Google it, because if I had to break it down in the story, it would get very nerdy and very boring, very fast.

Anyways, Mark had a thing for creating all kinds of scripts and commands, and during one of his class projects with me, he told me about his older brother who was a senior in high school, and also an aspiring computer engineer. When Mark told his older brother that Ms. Marsh was teaching us commands in simple scripting, his older brother became very interested in Mark's work. There was a day in class where Mark brought a flasher. drive two class with him. This translucent blue rectangle

that had a little green light that lit up when you plugged it into a computer and he said that his brother gave him some quote, practice scripts to run during his project. At this time I still haven't learned as much as I needed. But after the whole Tetra Tega situation

I went through, there was a phase of me trying to gain as much knowledge as I could about everything to protect against computer-related issues. It's not that I was scared, but having a friend randomly disappear like that was a wake-up call to learn as much as I could about computer security. The first thing I noticed when Mark put the flash drive into the computer and opened the file window was that the drive was named PXI-DST, which I read like pixie dust. And each of the files on the drive were a command file except one, which was a text file named Read Me. Mark scanned it quickly and didn't have a chance to look it over, but he nodded and changed the text file format into one I hadn't seen before. A dot-in-f format.

I asked Mark what he was doing, but he didn't answer, typing away as if he were in a trance, and then unplugged the flash drive and inserted it again. The drive lit up as usual, and then several command-prompt windows opened and vanished on the, the computer, and then it began a restart cycle almost immediately. I admit, I was weirded out, but I thought it was cool, until he got back to the desktop where there should have been a login screen for the school district, but there wasn't one. Mark clicked on the start icon at the bottom right corner and viewed his login name, which was now admin 1, and there were several new icons on the desktop, including shortcuts to the network manager, control panel, and even

a shortcut for MS config as well. Mark did some clicking around and then eventually wandered onto the old Internet Explorer, and found that YouTube and several other websites blocked by the school district were now readily accessible and unrestricted. He was able to download a flash game, and music, access his Gmail account, and do a bunch of other things we normally couldn't do on a school computer. The only thing we began to notice was that his computer seemed to be humming louder than usual, but we didn't know anything was inherently wrong until we came into class the next day. I'll never forget how chaotic it was for a Tuesday,

coming into school and having so many teachers complaining. The cafeteria lines were longer than usual, and the library labs were closed completely. In my other computer-related classes, we were informed that the computer services were slow and that tech support was trying to figure out what was going on. When we got to CAD class around midday, Ms. Marsh gave us textbooks and said that she'd been told the network was down for the rest of the day, and no one knew why. But halfway through the class, the principal went live on the school-wide PA system, to announce that a massive virus had gotten into our oh-so-secure school network

and was causing security issues all over the district. I remember laughing a bit because they said a team of forensic computer investigators was currently working to backtrack the origin of said infection, mainly because everyone knew that it was most likely a team of over-aged, underqualified, and unreliable texts from the district who banded together to try and handle the issue. Then, Ms. Marsh called me and Mark to her desk, and handed us referrals, directing us to go see the principal. I had never been so scared in my life. I didn't have a behavioral problem in school, and I kept good grades, but my parents did not play about getting write-ups.

Once there, Mark and I were told to sit in chairs on opposite sides of the office, and after waiting for what felt like an hour, we were brought in. and one by one to speak with the principal and a police officer. I remember sitting in that chair in front of the old, skinny, gray-haired woman that resembled the teacher from Invader Zim, and listening to her readout the referral, stating that I was apparently doing things on my computer that I wasn't supposed to do, and how Ms. Marsh could see us via some screen monitoring software she has installed on the computers in her class.

and since she couldn't tell who did what on the computer, she wrote us both up, and I was not about to go down for something I witnessed but didn't do. I told my story, and they made me sign a statement that what I said was the truth, and I asked to call my parents, but the principal insisted that she would call them herself and wouldn't let me do it.

I did tell her about how Mark used a flash drive to unlock the computer and that neither of us knew what was actually happening. We just assumed the drive gave him admin access or something. They asked me to describe the drive and then told me that this was a level four infraction in the school code of conduct, meaning expulsion or possible transfer to an ALC, alternative learning center, which was something like a prison school for wayward kids in the district who fight too much or destroy school property. Next up, Mark was interviewed, and it seemed to go a little longer for him.

I remember sitting there nervously expecting that Mark would lie to save his skin, and, turns out, he tried to. As I sat there period after period, eventually his parents showed up and came in, and I saw Mark being walked out in handcuffs. His mother made a huge scene up front, but the officers insisted he had to be taken, in for processing, which was something I didn't think they did to kids. The officer told the parents they could follow him to wherever he was taking Mark, and ironically, Mark's brother was with them. I remember how nonchalant and uncaring he seemed, as if he didn't

care that he had created some monstrosity and set his little brother up for something that was more than a harmless free pass on the computer. The real culprit here was Mark's older brother, and Mark was technically innocent, but the school district didn't see it that way. I later found out why the officer told Mark's family to follow him to the police station, when I spoke with one of the three admin office ladies that apologized and told me I was free to go. Since Mark's older brother was not a student of our high school, he was taken in for questioning by officers at their headquarters instead.

Mark confessed to having used the flash drive, as his brother instructed, but he also insisted that he didn't know what the drive would do. Mark's older brother did confess eventually, but I did hear that he also tried to lie about it, but then came clean when he realized he was only making things worse for his younger brother. Mark's brother actually ended up facing criminal charges for causing almost $50,000 in damages to district computers.

But the sad part is, Mark was also expelled, since he did admit that he used the flash drive and did some things that were against school policy with the access that he created. I didn't do anything except witness, so I was free to go, with a warning to tell a teacher next time I saw someone doing something weird on a school computer. A day later, I got jumped after school by friends of Mark, who called me a snitch, and said that it was. was all my fault.

Hey there, friends. I hope that you enjoyed this collection of scary stories on this episode of the As the Raven Dreams podcast. If the platform you're on has the option to follow podcast and you enjoyed my work, please do consider doing so. Also, leaving ratings and reviews are super important for the algorithm to support the growth of the podcast. I'm just one guy doing this.

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