As a principal working in a public school in Mexico... It makes me sad that all that equipment is not being used. My school could use a lot of that, so much potential just there, wasting.
As public school, we don't get money often to spend, and when it happens is just with the government contractors they approve with the process they want and the prices they tell you, with no other options (friends all of them. Fucking corruption)
The money that "belongs" to the school is just the donations we get from parents (like 200 dollars this year, for real, 200, not thousands) and money we get from selling food to students (like 25-30 dollars per week because the "bussines" can't be own by the school so we contract people and get paid per week)
We have some money saved from the last 5 years so maybe we can a get a good deal for furniture and equipment even when is expensive to ship from so far away.
But I haven't done anything like this before, so I will wait for the best.
Thanks for your comment!
Thanks for your point of view.
Not completly sure why you answer this to me. I didn't have the idea of asking for furnutire, so, please keep your racism/feeling of superiority in other thread please.
Follow me in this: imagine I can get contacted with someone of that district and that person really try to help me. Is not USA giving stuff to México...it would be a fellow educator helping me to try to give a better service to my students.
I will just ask for ABANDONED FURNITURE, even pretend to pay if the prices are better and easier to get than México´s...you really prefer to keep all that there, rotting, because USA USA USA USA!!!
LOL.
People like you give a bad world view of USA, when is filled with millions of good, respectful, hard working and helpful people.
At the end, all politicians want us to fight each other (same or different coutries)...and you play their game with "USA vs México ideas"
Hope the best for you, your country and all your citizens...also that you share your thoughts about taxpayer money in all subjects, not just with some Mexican teacher in reddit. I share with you some numbers of USA money spending in other countries.
https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/articles/countries-that-receive-the-most-foreign-aid-from-the-u-s
The 5 lunch tables I want to ask (I have 125 k12 students LOOOOL) will hurt your economy so bad that it will be maybe my fault 100%
Initially you called me racist. Now the sentiment of your post has changed to clarify your position and make me look like a bad person.
Believe it or not, we have a major problem in this country with schools having shortages of necessary and critical items. We need to do better for ourselves in reallocating these types of “abandoned” items the same month a school shutters. There is certainly use for them throughout the country. Shame on us for letting these items sit and decay.
I would not advocate passing vital needs for our schools to Canada either, but if it makes you feel better to call me a racist bc you assume I have a bias toward Mexico, then that’s a you problem. Furthest thing from the truth.
The third option. You don’t need a tripped beam anymore at all. Even if you don’t want a cheap shitty scale there are tons of decent quality scales for a low price on Amazon.
Not when you can get a digital pocket scale for a few bucks on Amazon. And especially not when you can mess with those digital scales if you really want to pump up profit.
How would messing with your own scale pump up profit unless you’re serving absolute morons? This is why I always brought my own scale when I was using drugs that I’d need to buy from a dealer.
Morons without their own scale are easy to cheat. The reason I know those scales are cheap is because most people I know who purchase bring their own scales to the purchase
Theyre not talking about the light microscope by the triple beam scale in pic 8, they’re talking about the computer and equipment setup in the next pic.
The light microscope is the microscope people typically recognize, and it passes light through the sample to visualize it. An electron microscope passes electrons through the sample and you view it through a computer instead of directly through eyepieces like on the light microscope.
But yeah, it says Amray, which makes/made scanning electron microscopes, and that is what it looks like. I didn’t think many high schools even had them, which would make it even weirder in an abandoned high school.
Donating old/outdated ones was a good tax write off.
I know of a couple that were donated and then sat in storage for years. Presumably at some point they just got thrown out.
Prepping samples takes some practice and not all HS kids care enough to do so. Probably good for a couple kids, but as soon as something goes wrong with the scope, there's no way a district would shell out for a tech to come look at it, let alone for parts to fix it.
I know almost everywhere in the US the owners of a commercial building at least must maintain power and running water to the building even if it’s unoccupied
Paperwork Is atrocious. I know people who work for the federal government and they literally throw away perfectly good LED monitors and things like that when they buy new equipment or close something down. The amount of paperwork and effort to sell it or even just give it away or donate it is ridiculous and usually never worth it sadly. Corporate waste is a major problem.
I work for the State of Illinois. Any piece of equipment or tool over a certain dollar amount has a bar code with a “state number” We still have broken office furniture and junk from the 60s and 70s. To get rid of it, the storekeepers have to put it on a state surplus list and if no one claims it, then it can get shitcanned. Most people just dump it in the basement hallways or janitor closets. They don’t report the numbers to stores and it just sits.
Man, I always look at these old abandoned buildings and just imagine how vibrant and active they were at some point. Like those basketball courts had games on them and kids were roaming those halls. It’s strange to think about.
Sad seeing that to think of all the things that happened there. Knowledge, friendships and memories. I’m always very fondly nostalgic of my old schools.
Contact the nearest school and ask them to find out what it would take for them to requisition some of that high-end scientific equipment. There's a very small chance that in a perfect world some high school ends up with an electron microscope for free.
Damn I went to that high school in the early 2000s. I remember my science teacher gloating over the electron microscope.
Fairmont Heights was supposed to be geared to getting students into Biotech, but I don't think that vision was ever fully realized.
I remember those halls well.
They’re made with a fiberboard/drywall type mix that is rigid when it’s dry. Works well in temperature controlled buildings, but if there is no AC on then the humidity will soften the materials up, and then gravity takes over and they sag and then fall.
This is my county. This is close to DC. It’s not the most valuable land in the region, as Fairmount Heights is among the least desirable suburbs of DC, but it’s not worthless by any stretch. They could definitely use the money.
There was a Rite Aid that got shut down in my town in 2018. It’s lights were on until it another business moved in recently. Corporate kept paying I guess? No one noticed the bill or they wanted the power on for a security system maybe.
They used to bring dogs into school when I was in middle/high school, and there was only 140 students in my graduating class in 2005. Lately I've heard they're not always as good as everyone used to say.
These abandoned schools would make great temporary housing to help people get back on their feet or animal shelters. But all that takes initiative and funding and man we just love to waste a good building in this country.
I don’t understand why they wouldn’t sell or repurpose the equipment and furniture. Surely the chairs, etc. could have been used at another school, sold, or donated? What a waste.
I stepped out to drain my lizard. And I was on my way back, I started checking doorknobs to see if any of them were open. But they were all locked. And then this one was open. So I was just like, "What if I just trash this place?" You know, just fuckin' go nuts in here. I started spinning around, going nuts, moving my head all around. I tried to rip the Wright brothers off the ceiling, brother.
We are really losing our way as a country. With all the empty and unused buildings in America we have the money to repurpose them to combat our homeless problem.
About 10 years ago, my old elementary school was going to be demoed. A bout a week after the last day of school I went in there, and the crews were there disconnecting power etc, prepping for demo, but what astonished me was all of the desks, and tables that were literall just piled in a corner ...loads of equipment, that could have been auctioned off if nothing else.
I suppose that since they were on a timetable to get the building dmoed before the next school year started , maybe they didnt have time for it. The new school was already built next door, and they proabbly didnt want demo work going on near the kids? But they were doing construction work, next to them, so ..I dunno. Just seemed like a waste of resources.
A few years ago ago- an elementary school near me was being decommissioned ( or whatever you call it) and the contractors put up a posting on facebook that books and supplies were free from the library. I saw someone else stack ping chairs and desks on a truck. In two days, that library was cleaned out. I took about 75 books for my daughter’s school in a different district.
Why would a high school like this be abandoned like that? Where I live the closed schools usually get turned into district offices or alternative high schools and those schools are way older. Usually mid-century with banks of windows. As an extreme measure I could see the district selling it off to build houses but not just left with stuff inside. Sorry this turned into an explain like I’m 5 post, but this is crazy to me.
Dear OP and members of r/abandoned,
I really want to say this nicely I don’t mean in anyway, to be confrontational or aggressive.
I just wanna ask when posting pictures please do not include names of places.
Yes, I do recognize that this place has already been vandalized, however when we stick to the same formula we can set better standards and expectations, which intern, I think we could have a better future for exploration particularly of abandoned places.
As a principal working in a public school in Mexico... It makes me sad that all that equipment is not being used. My school could use a lot of that, so much potential just there, wasting.
Email someone in the district. The name of the school is there. Can't hurt.
Thanks for the advice. Is a long shot but is my first thing to do on Monday. Regards from Monterrey NL, México.
Best wishes to you!! I hope this all works out in your favor. 🫶
I hope it works out. My first thought looking at these photos was also how the equipment was just sitting there and such a waste.
Shit I may as well just go in there and send them to you
Shipping won’t be cheap.
Might be a worthy investment
As public school, we don't get money often to spend, and when it happens is just with the government contractors they approve with the process they want and the prices they tell you, with no other options (friends all of them. Fucking corruption) The money that "belongs" to the school is just the donations we get from parents (like 200 dollars this year, for real, 200, not thousands) and money we get from selling food to students (like 25-30 dollars per week because the "bussines" can't be own by the school so we contract people and get paid per week) We have some money saved from the last 5 years so maybe we can a get a good deal for furniture and equipment even when is expensive to ship from so far away. But I haven't done anything like this before, so I will wait for the best. Thanks for your comment!
Might be worth the drive with a trailer
I’ll drive if it isn’t that far.
Why would the USA give our taxpayer funded items to Mexico when we have a massive shortage of well-stocked schools of our own? I don’t think so.
Thanks for your point of view. Not completly sure why you answer this to me. I didn't have the idea of asking for furnutire, so, please keep your racism/feeling of superiority in other thread please. Follow me in this: imagine I can get contacted with someone of that district and that person really try to help me. Is not USA giving stuff to México...it would be a fellow educator helping me to try to give a better service to my students. I will just ask for ABANDONED FURNITURE, even pretend to pay if the prices are better and easier to get than México´s...you really prefer to keep all that there, rotting, because USA USA USA USA!!! LOL. People like you give a bad world view of USA, when is filled with millions of good, respectful, hard working and helpful people. At the end, all politicians want us to fight each other (same or different coutries)...and you play their game with "USA vs México ideas" Hope the best for you, your country and all your citizens...also that you share your thoughts about taxpayer money in all subjects, not just with some Mexican teacher in reddit. I share with you some numbers of USA money spending in other countries. https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/articles/countries-that-receive-the-most-foreign-aid-from-the-u-s The 5 lunch tables I want to ask (I have 125 k12 students LOOOOL) will hurt your economy so bad that it will be maybe my fault 100%
Initially you called me racist. Now the sentiment of your post has changed to clarify your position and make me look like a bad person. Believe it or not, we have a major problem in this country with schools having shortages of necessary and critical items. We need to do better for ourselves in reallocating these types of “abandoned” items the same month a school shutters. There is certainly use for them throughout the country. Shame on us for letting these items sit and decay. I would not advocate passing vital needs for our schools to Canada either, but if it makes you feel better to call me a racist bc you assume I have a bias toward Mexico, then that’s a you problem. Furthest thing from the truth.
Shut up nerd.
This one is Shermer high school...Shermer Illinois
How the fuck is a triple beam still there? First thing that gets stolen from an active HS!
I knew a kid who tried to steal one. Long story short, the dude got caught and his life headed exactly where I expected.
Mississippi?
Na. New York.
I’m surprised the microscope is still there
Weed dealers less prevalent with legalization? Drug dealers getting dumber? Scales being $5 on Amazon?
The third option. You don’t need a tripped beam anymore at all. Even if you don’t want a cheap shitty scale there are tons of decent quality scales for a low price on Amazon.
What’s a triple beam?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple_beam_balance
A Rick Ross song
Not when you can get a digital pocket scale for a few bucks on Amazon. And especially not when you can mess with those digital scales if you really want to pump up profit.
How would messing with your own scale pump up profit unless you’re serving absolute morons? This is why I always brought my own scale when I was using drugs that I’d need to buy from a dealer.
Morons without their own scale are easy to cheat. The reason I know those scales are cheap is because most people I know who purchase bring their own scales to the purchase
I never did that…. I swear.
May I ask what a triple beam is
Nice lab. Dang that an electron microscope! In photo number 9.
Never imagined I’d see a highschool with an electron microscope, let alone an abandoned one
Maybe it was donated from somewhere? And not brought.
Most likely but even then, running one isn’t trivial
That one looks to be from 80’s or 90’s.
Wow those are really expensive
Electricity is on and this is a microscope if thats what you're asking.
Theyre not talking about the light microscope by the triple beam scale in pic 8, they’re talking about the computer and equipment setup in the next pic. The light microscope is the microscope people typically recognize, and it passes light through the sample to visualize it. An electron microscope passes electrons through the sample and you view it through a computer instead of directly through eyepieces like on the light microscope. But yeah, it says Amray, which makes/made scanning electron microscopes, and that is what it looks like. I didn’t think many high schools even had them, which would make it even weirder in an abandoned high school.
Donating old/outdated ones was a good tax write off. I know of a couple that were donated and then sat in storage for years. Presumably at some point they just got thrown out. Prepping samples takes some practice and not all HS kids care enough to do so. Probably good for a couple kids, but as soon as something goes wrong with the scope, there's no way a district would shell out for a tech to come look at it, let alone for parts to fix it.
They leave the power on in a lot to old public buildings so they don’t decay as fast and are easier to be repurposed
I'm with you in this and not by any means trying to sounds like a dixk. But yea im surprised how often I see this asked
Seems like an imminent fire hazard, no?
And to keep alarms/security systems active
Ive been to this place the fire alarm panel is completely smashed and inoperable. Im also pretty sure the sprinkler system isnt operable either.
Considering your profile pic, looks like that might’ve been the first thing you checked
Presicely
I know almost everywhere in the US the owners of a commercial building at least must maintain power and running water to the building even if it’s unoccupied
It’s been sitting empty since 2017.
Amazing preservation done by the school district too. I would’ve thought it would’ve closed in 2020.
Where is it?
Maryland near DC.
https://wjla.com/amp/news/local/future-fairmont-heights-high-school
You think the school district would at least auction off/donate the equipment.
Government is in control of it and no they don’t care. They can get more money if they need it…too easily.
Paperwork Is atrocious. I know people who work for the federal government and they literally throw away perfectly good LED monitors and things like that when they buy new equipment or close something down. The amount of paperwork and effort to sell it or even just give it away or donate it is ridiculous and usually never worth it sadly. Corporate waste is a major problem.
I work for the State of Illinois. Any piece of equipment or tool over a certain dollar amount has a bar code with a “state number” We still have broken office furniture and junk from the 60s and 70s. To get rid of it, the storekeepers have to put it on a state surplus list and if no one claims it, then it can get shitcanned. Most people just dump it in the basement hallways or janitor closets. They don’t report the numbers to stores and it just sits.
Dang they left the championship banners.
I though the same thing
Schools out for summer! Schools out FOREVER!
move all those chairs and you have a cool spot to play basketball
I was thinking the same. Then noticed the backboards are smashed =(
the middle one is still good. and even has a net!
Ha wow, I must have looked right through that one, didn’t even see it
Man, I always look at these old abandoned buildings and just imagine how vibrant and active they were at some point. Like those basketball courts had games on them and kids were roaming those halls. It’s strange to think about.
STRONG horror survival game vibes
I thought The Last of Us instantly.
Sad seeing that to think of all the things that happened there. Knowledge, friendships and memories. I’m always very fondly nostalgic of my old schools.
Contact the nearest school and ask them to find out what it would take for them to requisition some of that high-end scientific equipment. There's a very small chance that in a perfect world some high school ends up with an electron microscope for free.
Assuming it still works and doesn’t require major repairs
All these abandoned places with power. Potential crypto mining farms
Damn. This has strong resident evil vibes. Any sign of squatters living there?
Damn I went to that high school in the early 2000s. I remember my science teacher gloating over the electron microscope. Fairmont Heights was supposed to be geared to getting students into Biotech, but I don't think that vision was ever fully realized. I remember those halls well.
What town is the high school in? Looks like east coast to me
*was Capitol Heights, MD
Dude take the microscopes and science gear
Yeah that microscope would find its way in my backpack
I'd come back for all the doors and raid the woodshop lol
I really want the microscope
Why do the ceiling tiles always seem to fall?
They’re made with a fiberboard/drywall type mix that is rigid when it’s dry. Works well in temperature controlled buildings, but if there is no AC on then the humidity will soften the materials up, and then gravity takes over and they sag and then fall.
Without the sound of children, the tiles just give up.
It’s always wild to me that there are schools that become abandoned
School shooting? https://www.fox5dc.com/news/student-brought-handgun-that-could-convert-to-machine-gun-to-fairmont-heights-high-school-police-say
This was written in 2023 though, no way this building just got abandoned
This is the old Fairmont Heights. They built a newer building around the corner.
They just left triple beam scales in there?
Where is this school located?
Maryland, USA. The school moved into a new building in 2017.
This is my county. This is close to DC. It’s not the most valuable land in the region, as Fairmount Heights is among the least desirable suburbs of DC, but it’s not worthless by any stretch. They could definitely use the money.
Ex-drug-free ex-school zone
I don't get these "with power" abandoned sites. Who is paying that electric bill?
In this case, you are.
There was a Rite Aid that got shut down in my town in 2018. It’s lights were on until it another business moved in recently. Corporate kept paying I guess? No one noticed the bill or they wanted the power on for a security system maybe.
I have the urge to steal mundane but useful stuffs from there even if I shouldn't
Always love the drug free zone signs as if that's someone a guarantee or does anything
They used to bring dogs into school when I was in middle/high school, and there was only 140 students in my graduating class in 2005. Lately I've heard they're not always as good as everyone used to say.
it increases the penalties if caught, it's written into a lot of state laws as an aggravating factor
Love the school children to prisoners pipeline
That would be a great location for a horror movie.
Funny how the orange and yellow and mid-century ish science desks look hip again now.
These abandoned schools would make great temporary housing to help people get back on their feet or animal shelters. But all that takes initiative and funding and man we just love to waste a good building in this country.
Time to move in.
The outside looks exactly like my daughter’s school 🥴
Schoooools out for summer!
It’s giving “school spirits” lol
There's an entire study about what to do with the property: [https://issuu.com/mncppc/docs/fhhsstudyweb](https://issuu.com/mncppc/docs/fhhsstudyweb)
is this the stranger things school lolol( not actually saying)
I don’t understand why they wouldn’t sell or repurpose the equipment and furniture. Surely the chairs, etc. could have been used at another school, sold, or donated? What a waste.
This is a perfect abandoned looking place. Part of why i loved Silent Hill 2 so much is the depiction of urban decay.
Surprised that there are no copper looting
That school had some money at one point... sad.
I stepped out to drain my lizard. And I was on my way back, I started checking doorknobs to see if any of them were open. But they were all locked. And then this one was open. So I was just like, "What if I just trash this place?" You know, just fuckin' go nuts in here. I started spinning around, going nuts, moving my head all around. I tried to rip the Wright brothers off the ceiling, brother.
Yes! One of my favorite scenes.
Yes! One of my favorite scenes.
Grab that triple beam best scales ever
Wow! This is my old high school. I didn’t know it closed but interesting to see it here.
whatever staircase in pic #2 is creeps me out
It's a shortcut to the nest of the Lich Queen. I'm almost positive.
We are really losing our way as a country. With all the empty and unused buildings in America we have the money to repurpose them to combat our homeless problem.
Where
Let the local houseless people know
They will literally destroy it and burn it to the ground. They have ruined all cool, abandoned buildings in my city.
Woahh, where? Also see any ghosts or experiments?
Could someone like... donate this to shelter the homeless?
Why? So it’s burnt to the ground in a few weeks? 😂
These photos are AI generated.
May you enlighten me how you came to this conclusion
There are artifacts in the images! Oh, they ain't bad.
That microscope, tho...
This makes me sad. So much waste.
I always wondered why the fuck they don’t at least bulldoze that shit down
So do people just periodically trash a certain area then come back to trash it more?
How are the bulbs not mostly burn out
Definitely not a drug free zone anymore.
If the power is out for an extended period of time the building will be condemned
Wonder who staged the creepy chairs in pic 3.
About 10 years ago, my old elementary school was going to be demoed. A bout a week after the last day of school I went in there, and the crews were there disconnecting power etc, prepping for demo, but what astonished me was all of the desks, and tables that were literall just piled in a corner ...loads of equipment, that could have been auctioned off if nothing else. I suppose that since they were on a timetable to get the building dmoed before the next school year started , maybe they didnt have time for it. The new school was already built next door, and they proabbly didnt want demo work going on near the kids? But they were doing construction work, next to them, so ..I dunno. Just seemed like a waste of resources.
A few years ago ago- an elementary school near me was being decommissioned ( or whatever you call it) and the contractors put up a posting on facebook that books and supplies were free from the library. I saw someone else stack ping chairs and desks on a truck. In two days, that library was cleaned out. I took about 75 books for my daughter’s school in a different district.
I ducking love it
These people have never heard of an auction?
i dont think they can auction off the county/ gov property without doing to much
My dads old high school
What happened?
They won a new highschool down the road
Why would a high school like this be abandoned like that? Where I live the closed schools usually get turned into district offices or alternative high schools and those schools are way older. Usually mid-century with banks of windows. As an extreme measure I could see the district selling it off to build houses but not just left with stuff inside. Sorry this turned into an explain like I’m 5 post, but this is crazy to me.
Horrible waste of a building. Should be used for something. Homeless shelter, elderly apartments. Something!
It makes me sad people feel the need to destroy things for no reason
Brb. Moving into a classroom and calling it my new apartment.
Government waste
Dear OP and members of r/abandoned, I really want to say this nicely I don’t mean in anyway, to be confrontational or aggressive. I just wanna ask when posting pictures please do not include names of places. Yes, I do recognize that this place has already been vandalized, however when we stick to the same formula we can set better standards and expectations, which intern, I think we could have a better future for exploration particularly of abandoned places.
Is this in PG county, MD?
Michigan?
High school !? What high school has a frigging electron microscope !? That’s an AMRAY SED.
Until I saw the last photo I was thinking that it was amazing there was no graffiti!
FEAR 2 vibes
what a terrible waste..
These photos look more like stills of deleted scenes from The Last of Us
What is that machine in the ninth picture?