Creepy Things in the Choir Room?
  • Susdem
    Posts: 6
    Hi all,

    Is your choir room/rehearsal space open to the public or do you keep it locked? Ours currently is but we have been having a problem with someone randomly coming in and writing creepy messages/drawing creepy images on the white board. The first time it happened, someone came in and wrote a racial slur on some sheet music and wrote a message saying XXXX was here. I googled the name - I can't remember what it was - and it was the name of a TikTok challenge that involved a series of 50 challenges with the last one being to commit suicide. We filed a police report and my pastor prayed some exorcism prayers in the room and sprinkled some blessed salt.

    Everything went well for a while but lately we've been having creepy messages/drawings left on the white board about once a month. This last Sunday, my cantor and I walked in to the message "I (picture of a heart) death". It's a little unnerving to the musicians and there's been times where the youth choir walks in to inappropriate messages on the board.

    I really don't want to lock the choir room because I have a couple of cantors who like to come early and practice their music before I get there. However, I'm starting to wonder if that's our only option.

    Has anyone dealt with a similar problem? How did you address it?

    Thanks in advance.
  • RoborgelmeisterRoborgelmeister
    Posts: 324
    Get a lock installed with a code for entry. No need for keys, nor re-keying. Or, a key box with a code for acess to the key. One never wants keys floating around in various hands. I worked at church that had to re-key every lock, and it was very expensive.
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  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 3,263
    Yeah…I would prefer an electronic system where every person has a code that only gets them into the buildings and rooms where they need to access it, and where the system tracks entries: so, if for example, someone’s code is used but that person isn’t on the grounds, and something goes wrong, then that person gets a verbal smacking or worse (loss of privileges for example)

    One parish here even does this for the priest’s confessional accessible from the sacristy only (it’s a room, which I don’t like myself).

    I don’t like a lock box because they are often not that secure even if you close and clear the lock; anyone can pry it open with ease.

    Unfortunately the rooms needs to be locked and if necessary the culprits removed from the grounds and trespassed.
  • SponsaChristi
    Posts: 617
    Our choir room was always kept locked. If I needed to get in, I just went and found someone with a key to unlock the door for me. Is this not an option at your church?

    If you want to find out who’s doing what, you could talk to the pastor about getting some Ring cameras installed in the room. They’re fairly inexpensive and simple to set up.
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  • matthewjmatthewj
    Posts: 2,677
    Security camera is your best bet
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  • AbbysmumAbbysmum
    Posts: 119
    Our spaces are locked with a key, but there are tons of keys floating around. We have a fob system for entry to the building itself, and they've discussed switching the rest of the building to fobs so they can control access more effectively. We also have security cameras.

    The Ring camera suggestion is a good one!
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  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 3,263
    We have a fob system for entry to the building itself, and they've discussed switching the rest of the building to fobs so they can control access more effectively.


    every parish has people with keys who don't need one; making it more expensive and painful for people who lose or would be willing to give out keys is good.
  • AbbysmumAbbysmum
    Posts: 119
    @MatthewRoth

    Fobs have really come down in price, and they are almost the same as a security key these days. Mine is just a key tag thing, about the size of a War Amps tag (if anyone is familiar with that... is that just a Canadian thing?).

    The additional advantage of the fob, as well as controlling who/what/when access, is that they can be canceled at anytime if the person goes AWOL or they abuse it (or lose it).

    Right now, my fob lets me into the building, but I can't access other areas controlled by fob (the office and the Knight's room). But anything that just needs the key, I can get into because I also have a physical key (classrooms, sanctuary, choir loft, sacristy, equipment rooms, kitchen, etc). We've had problems with people getting into the equipment cupboards and people walking off with microphones, cables etc.
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 3,263
    I would trespass those people if I were a pastor. Stealing the goods of the church ought to be canonically punished as well.
  • Diapason84
    Posts: 144
    Time to install a camera in the room and lock it up when not in use. Good on the pastor for the special prayers.
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  • dad29
    Posts: 2,238
    Of course, there's always the Shotgun Shuffle, wherein the perp meets the business end of a 12 ga. at close range. Doesn't have to be fatal, either.

    But it DOES require the presence of a person.
  • AbbysmumAbbysmum
    Posts: 119
    I would trespass those people if I were a pastor. Stealing the goods of the church ought to be canonically punished as well.


    Only works if you know who they are
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 3,263
    OK but that’s why you get the camera and/or limit access by logging code or fob usage
  • SponsaChristi
    Posts: 617
    Of course, there's always the Shotgun Shuffle, wherein the perp meets the business end of a 12 ga. at close range.

    This seems a bit overkill for the situation. For all you know it’s just some adolescents going through a phase.
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  • PaxMelodious
    Posts: 472
    I would trespass those people if I were a pastor. Stealing the goods of the church ought to be canonically punished as well.


    So these sinners acted against someone else, so they can still come and we'll work on conversion of heart.

    But those ones sinned against us, so no way. Hmm.



    I'm not sure where stealing got introduced to the conversation.

    But churches, by their nature, attract disturbed people. Churches need hardware, policies and procedures to keep people safe, while carrying out Jesus' instructions to love difficult people.

    Oh - and youth choirs should NEVER be entering a space that has not been checked out by an adult first.
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  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 3,263

    We've had problems with people getting into the equipment cupboards and people walking off with microphones, cables etc.


    If you can read my comment wherein I address that thieves should be trespassed, you would have seen where theft was introduced.

    The problem is that there is no good internal-to-the-church way that people would respect and which sufficiently rehabilitates the offender, restores justice, and repairs the scandal. And bishops do allow pastors to trespass folks (or do it themselves). They can go to another parish or chapel for Mass. “but they have been there for years!” Why didn’t that stop them from stealing?

    I agree that churches attract disturbed people by their nature, but theft often has a way of repeating itself or attracting other problems.
  • Susdem
    Posts: 6
    Thanks for all the suggestions, everyone. We are installing cameras in the choir room and our maintenance man will be monitoring them. We are also filing a police report and will be keeping a log of future incidents.

    In regards to the choir about the youth choir entering first, that particular incident happened while they were singing for Mass so the room had been "cleared" both when I practiced with the cantor for the early Mass and when I was there just a little over an hour before during their choral pre-Mass rehearsal. The kids just beat me down to the room after Mass when they went to put their binders away.

    No theft has occurred that we are aware of. Just creepy messages/drawings.
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 12,043
    Probably done by a soprano who didn't get a solo. They are vindictive creatures.

    Have you had any disagreements or words with anyone who may be trying to get back at you?
  • RoborgelmeisterRoborgelmeister
    Posts: 324
    youth choirs should NEVER be entering a space that has not been checked out by an adult first.

    This is very important.
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  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 3,263
    There is a lot to criticize about the French public schools, and the church for that matter, but one thing that they get right culturally that Americans don't even think about, is that the teachers rotate classrooms in secondary school for the most part (only a computer teacher would, for obvious reasons, mostly remain stationary), although they tend to use the same set of rooms at different times of the day. The students wait in the hallway for the teacher to invite them in. They are not supposed to enter even an unlocked classroom, certainly not without the teacher being present, and they don't even go down without the teacher's permission to meet the teacher in a classroom in between classes (neither teachers nor students, for the most part, have class in every period every day). They also don't get to bother teachers in the work room (and it's really for work, not just coffee).

    The upshot of this is that you have fewer one-on-one interactions or possibilities of weird stuff (like this) happening, without people living life simply to cover their behinds, which is inevitably how it happens in the US, which I think is regrettable also.
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