A Flying Saucer Landing At A School, A Crop Circle In The Playground and Nine Kids With Missing Time
A Flying Saucer Landing At A School, A Crop Circle In The Playground and Nine Kids With Missing Time
by Bill Knell
My favorite çlass in my Junior year at Boca Ciega High School in early 1970s Gulfport, Florida was Mass Media. The teacher, Mrs W, was awesome. At some point she wanted us to join one of the after school clubs, spend some time there, then give the class a verbal report on our experiences.
I soon discovered that most of the clubs were actually snobbish cliques that resented outsiders. On top of that, most did not interest me. There were jjust a few (Math, Chess, Debate and so on) and I knew I would not fit in. Than, an idea popped into my head.
I have been interested in UFOs and the Unexplained since I was nine years old. Why not start a UFO (Unidentified Flying Objects) Club? I went to the school office, filled out the paperwork and got busy recruiting people I knew to help.
Long story by, I thought that very few people would attend our first meeting. I was wrong. We were packed out. Even the school principal came to share his story about a UFO sighting he had while in the Military. He later moved out meeting to the lunch room because there was a lot more space. We were still packed out
Word spread quickly through the school and out into the community as we were featured in the school paper and a local newspaper. The problem was that everyone thought we investigated UFO sightings instead of just sharing or discussing them.
In a time when UFOs were always in the news and Florida was a hotbed of sightings and encounters, people began calling the school. They always asked for someone from the UFO club because they wanted to make a report.
After a while, the office staff gave us an unused phone extension. We took turns manning it as free time between classes (we had modular scheduling) allowed. For most of the school day, one of us manned the phone in a room next to the office and by the restrooms. School non-believers scoffed saying that was where we belonged. As a result, our club attendence and reports of sightings grew exponentially.
Since I had the most experience with UFO investigations, I was given double duty as the club spokesperson/president and lead UFO investigator. Others helped as they could and I taught an investigator training class once a month.
The first major case that I assigned to myself was a tough one. Several parents contacted us by phone to say that their kids saw a UFO land on a playground at Bear Creek, a nearby elementary school. The school was somewhat close to my house and about halfway the distance between Boca Ciega High School and my home. It was too complicated for me to pass on to anyone else and I lived right in the area where it all happened.
That case came to us in the form of several phone messages. I returned the calls and took as much information over the phone as I could to be certain it wasn’t a joke or hoax. Once I was certain that everything was on the up and up, I told fellow club member officers Jeanne and Margaret about it. They were very excited and asked if they could participate in the investigation? I was fine with that and we contacted the parents to get things set up.
I asked the two sets of parents that reported the incident to us and their four children to meet us at our classroom on a Friday evening. There were several sporting events scheduled for that night and the school was already open. My older sister Ingrid made herself available to us so that we would have an adult present during our conversations with the parents and their children. Margaret and Jeanne also came and took notes.
We got there early, discussed what the parents reported to us and waited. The parents and children arrived on time and we invited them to tell us all what happened. A group of kids, ages 9-11, were playing at the elementary school playground around 4pm on the previous Friday when they spotted a disc-shaped UFO hovering over the playground and sports field in back of the school. Everything got very quiet and the object proceeded to land in an open area between the swing sets and a baseball field.
After landing, the object remained still. It was a dull metallic, silvery color. The kids recalled that the disc stayed on the ground for a few minutes, then took off slowly and hovered again. A few seconds later, it went straight up at a very fast speed. Frightened, they went home and told their parents about the whole thing. All of the kids involved lived just a few blocks from the school playground and all of them attended that school.
There were a total of nine children involved. Seven were boys and two were girls. The four that came to speak with us were boys, two from each of the four parents that came with them. The other three boys and two girls had parents that didn’t want to get involved in the investigation. I knew this would be problematic, but decided to deal with it later. Although we had already been told a truly amazing story, there were even more surprises to come.
Wondering how long the UFO remained at the playground, I asked the parents what time their children arrived home? They said it was around nine o‘clock at night. I was taken aback by their answer and wondered how a UFO could remain landed on a public playground and sports field for so many hours without anyone else noticing? And what about the kids? Why would they stand there for all that time without going to tell someone?
The parents told me that they didn’t believe their kids when they were first told the UFO landing story. Once it got past dinner time, both sets of parents went out looking for their kids after calling each other several times on the phone to see if any of them had arrived home yet? The families knew each other and were very concerned that their children hadn’t come home for supper.
Their first stop was the school playground. No one was there. Both sets of parents went there at different times between sixty-thirty and seven o’clock in the evening. Neither saw a UFO or any children playing on the playground. It was dark by six and the playground was closed by then, but not locked. The fence that surrounded that area had a broken gate.
After looking everywhere, they stopped at all their friend’s houses. Some of their friends were also overdue and those parents were equally concerned. At that point, they separately called the police and waited. Police arrived at both homes and were in the middle of taking statements when all of the children arrived safely back at their respective homes. The police didn’t stay to hear the UFO stories, said the kids were probably just up to some kind of monkeyshines and warned them not to do it again.
The children that we talked to told their parents about the UFO, but their parents said they seemed confused when they finally got home. They had no idea it was nine o’clock at night. In their timeframe, it should have been around four thirty or maybe five o’clock at the latest. Besides coming home so late, the children’s clothes were disheveled as if they dressed quickly.
Jeanne asked the boys where they were during all that time? They said that they didn’t know and that troubled me greatly. I kept thinking about Alien Abduction cases and wondered if we were already in well over our heads? Either way, I wanted a look at that school playground. After the meeting, I asked Jeanne and Maggie if they wanted to go to the playground the following day? I barely finished asking before Jeanne offered to meet us there. Jeanne had her driver’s license and a car.
The next day we arrived at the elementary school playground. We were very excited and began looking around right away. It didn’t take long to notice a large circle of flattened grass in the playground and sports field area. We were stunned and more than a little shaken. The circle reminded me of the one I saw on the water tower property in East Meadow a few years before we moved from New York to Florida.
We had a camera, measuring tape, plastic gloves and some small plastic storage containers to take soil and grass samples. I thought it would be a good idea to bring Mary Ann, another club member, along as a third witness to what we discovered, so I ran over to her house to ask if she wanted to come with us. She did.
We photographed the entire area, measured the circle and took samples of the soil and grass in and outside of the circular area of flattened grass. Later, we found that the soil samples were never received by the professor at a local college who agreed to render an opinion. The two rolls of film were “over exposed.” Welcome to the wonderful world of UFO Investigation and Research.
While we were at the school, a maintenance worker came out of the main building to talk to us. “Do you know what this is?” he asked. “It appeared here last week and everyone is worried that it’s some kind of a toxic spill.” I told the worker what we thought it was. He laughed and said, “Well, your explanation is as good as any I’ve heard so far.”
We took a statement from the worker and included it in our report. Jeanne suggested that we go back to my house and try to contact the parents and children again. Mary Ann called both sets of parents while Jeanne and I sorted out the samples from the playground and made some notes that would be used later for our report. After she finished calling, Mary Ann said that only one family was home. They agreed to meet with us.
Jeanne, Mary Ann, Margaret and I agreed to keep the news about the new evidence we discovered at the elementary school to ourselves until we completed another interview with the boys involved. It was obvious we were missing something here and we needed to talk with the boys and their parents some more. Once again Ingrid was our adult chaperone.
The parents were glad to see us. Before we could ask them any questions, they said that their kids had a rough night’s sleep. Although it might have been because we had the meeting the evening before and talked about their experiences, I had a feeling more was going on than I cared to think about.
The boys came in from their backyard to join us in the living room. When their parents asked them to tell us about their sleep problems, they both said that they hadn’t slept well for the past several nights. The boys were nervous and I didn’t want to add to any trauma they might be experiencing, so I suggested we speak with them separately.
I asked Jeanne to interview one boy and Mary Ann to interview the other while Margaret and I spoke to the parents. I thought a one on one interview without their parents present would make it easier for them to open up and tell us anything they felt might be important. Speaking to the parents without the boys present might also yield some more information.
Jeanne spoke with one of the boys in the back yard, while Mary Ann talked with his brother in the room that the two boys shared. It turned out to be a good plan. Jeanne and Mary Ann did a terrific job and ended with several pages of notes and lots of information. They wisely kept what they learned to themselves until after we left the house.
I spoke with the parents for a while and found out that both boys had rashes and bruises on their bodies the day after the UFO sighting at their school. Their parents might not have noticed, but the family went swimming at the beach on the day after the incident. They became concerned when they saw the rashes and bruises. The rashes cleared up after a few days and any black and blue marks from the bruises were all but gone by now.
I recalled that one of the UFO newsletters I read mentioned how UFO witnesses sometimes try and fabricate information to please the people interviewing them. This usually happens when the witnesses have some previous knowledge about the subject. The newsletter suggested looking around the home for UFO books. I looked at the book shelves they had. There was nothing but fictional novels, magazines and a set of encyclopedias. No UFO or paranormal book titles or periodicals.
I immediately saw the value of interviewing UFO witnesses in their own homes. Apart from being able to check out their book collection, neither the parents nor the boys had bothered to mention anything about the rashes or bruises during our meeting at the school the night before. Either they felt uncomfortable or we were just asking the wrong questions at that time. Regardless, we were certainly on the right track and I really wanted to get to the bottom of whatever happened during that UFO encounter.
After Jeanne and Mary Ann completed their interviews, I told the parents it was time for us to go. I explained that we needed to speak with the other two boys and their parents before sharing any more information about our investigation. However, I promised to get back to them as soon as possible.
We were finally able to contact the other family and visited their house less than an hour later. As with the others, these boys were having sleep problems. We interviewed everyone separately and came up with identical stories. Both of these boys also had rashes and bruises on their bodies for a few days, but they were certain it was from wrestling around on their back lawn. I was less certain than they were.
By late Saturday afternoon, Jeanne, Mary Ann, Margaret and I were just completely floored! I suggested that we take some time to write up our notes, contact the other club officers and see if they wanted to take a look at the affected area of grass at the school? Mary Ann volunteered to call them. Fellow club charter members Bob, Billy and Jim met us later at the elementary school playground and were as impressed as we were when they saw what I believed was a saucer nest (crop circle).
Jeanne, Mary Ann, Margaret and I got together and began preparing a preliminary report on the elementary school playground UFO case. Meanwhile, I began pondering another problem that I was sure everyone present had overlooked. Before we spilled the beans on what we thought happened at the school playground, there was a job to do that no one was looking forward to doing. We had to speak with both sets of parents and tell them what we thought was happening to their kids: a classic case of Alien Kidnapping.
Ingrid, Jeanne, Mary Ann, Margaret and I went to the homes of both sets of parents on Monday evening. We visited them separately to lessen the shock and explained what we thought was happening. We began by briefing the parents about the discovery of the circular area of flattened grass in the elementary school playground. Next, I explained what I thought might have happened to their boys. I told them that it was entirely possible that the boys had been taken aboard the object they saw and kept on board for several hours. None of the children involved recall seeing any UFO occupants.
I said that it wasn’t unusual for anyone taken aboard such a craft to experience memory loss and missing time. That would explain why they thought it was much earlier when they were released and finally headed home. I also explained how the rashes and bruises could be evidence of a kind of physical exam that UFO occupants sometimes performed on those they brought aboard. Without providing too much information about other cases, I gave both sets of parents a thumbnail sketch about Alien kidnappings.
I felt more comfortable explaining everything to the parents with Ingrid present, but I could see that she was as upset as they were. It was a hard pill to swallow. I got the impression that they already suspected a lot more was going on with their kids than they knew about. Both sets of parents opted to have their kids in the room while we explained everything and the children took it surprisingly well.
The club officers all agreed that keeping the information about the elementary school playground case under our hats would accomplish nothing. We had more than enough proof that something unexplained happened, so it was time to go public. I thought it would be better to keep the parents and children out of the public eye. Ingrid and some of the other charter members felt that no one would believe our story unless we were able to produce some of the witnesses involved.
I yielded to the majority opinion and we went to speak with both sets of parents again. We asked them if they would join us at the Friday meeting of our UFO Club and be willing to allow the boys to talk about what they remembered? Both sets of parents agreed to come and bring their boys to the meeting. I made sure that they understood that news of an encounter like this one would probably end up in the newspaper and on TV. They felt that their kids would be better able to deal with and accept what happened if they were able to share it with others.
Mrs. Michelle (our Librarian) helped us get our club started, so I felt that I owed it to her to explain what we would be doing at our Friday club meeting. I thought her husband might be interested and he was. George Michelle called me at school on Wednesday and wondered if I would appear on his early morning television program on Friday. His program preceded a network morning show and had a substantial viewing audience.
Before agreeing to appear on the show, I spoke with Ingrid, Margaret, Mary Ann, Jeanne and the other officers of the UFO Club. They all agreed it was a good opportunity. I didn’t really want to go it alone. I knew Mary Ann was a No Go because she had a family event she could not miss early in the day. Our planned TV guest spot was too much for the other guys. They bowed out of the club. I understood. These type of situations aren’t for everyone.
Margaret, Jeanne and I got the duty. Ingrid came along for moral support. We arrived at the television studio around 5:30am and George briefed us on how things would go. Jeanne had all the film developed locally that we took AGAIN at the playground over the weekend, so we brought those photos along as visuals. George visited the elementary school with his own video unit and camera on Thursday. He managed to get some comments from the maintenance man we spoke to and the school administration.
The maintenance man confirmed that the circular area of affected grass suddenly appeared without explanation. The school administration had little to say because the events in question happened after school. George didn’t mention the possibility of alien kidnappings, just the UFO sighting and possible disc landing. We dropped the bomb about the children with missing time during the show.
By the time the UFO Club was ready to meet that afternoon, things were crazy. The lunchroom was packed to the rafters with students and teachers. The St Petersburg Times newspaper came and George showed up with a film crew to cover our event for the WFLA news broadcast.
George Michelle neglected to tell us that his early morning show recently expanded its viewing audience. The program was now seen on several stations throughout Florida as part of a mini-syndication deal. That meant that our little story was quickly becoming a big one all over the state.
Mary Ann, Margaret, Jeanne and I presented our report on the elementary school playground case at our club meeting. The four boys that witnessed the object gave brief statements and their parents talked a little about the rashes and bruises on the boys. After they spoke, I gave a brief presentation and explained the nature of alien kidnappings and why we thought that was what might have happened to the boys. After the meeting ended, people had a thousand questions.
It didn’t surprise me that George wanted Jeanne, Margaret and I back on the show, along with the boys. We all agreed and showed up for his show on Monday morning. A local college professor also appeared on the show as a counterbalance to our presentation to represent the skeptical view. He called everything we reported ‘speculation’ and I ended up in a one on one with him.
I got into how all science is speculation and hypothesis. I pointed out that scientists often change their minds about established facts based on new information. He fired back with the usual argument that even if other life forms existed somewhere in the universe, they probably wouldn’t be able to find or visit the earth. I made the point that skeptics ignore evidence that life exists elsewhere in the universe and has already visited our planet. Most of those present felt that I won the day.
The TV program was devoted to the elementary school playground case. The boys told their stories and we commented on what we thought might have happened during the entire event. It made for terrific television and brought even more attention to our UFO Club. However, I was a lot less interested in having my face on television and more interested in keeping things moving in my personal life.
I allowed things to cool down and when school ended for the summer, the club members and I met intermittently at each other's homes. The TV show got me invitations to appear on radio morning and talk shows, as well as speaking engagements at local clubs and some libraries. We tried reporting our case to national UFO investigation groups, but none seemed interested.
Just in case you're wondering what happened to all the evidence we had? It's gone. It was kept in our main club classroom. Over the summer everything in the classroom was replaced in an “update of school facilities* according to the administration. Even videos of the shows we did are gone. They vanished within a year of the event. Even more shocking, all the kids and parents involved mysteriously moved away over summer. But, there's no government coverup…right?
My verbal report to my Mass Media class got me an A+. However, a girl who gave a report on her time in the math club and almost put us all asleep got a C, which her guidence counselor got changed to an E for excellent. Still, everyone enjoyed hearing my report, even the unbelievers. I was just 16 when all this happened.
Kailey Fields offers readers fresh and very human fiction stories that are unique, yet relatable.
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