Taylor Swift Won't Play at a School for the Deaf After All

The Horace Mann School for the Deaf garnered thousands of Internet votes to win an online contest promising a Taylor Swift concert on campus—thousands of votes which were thrown out because the contest's sponsors didn't like that 4chan and Reddit were involved. The school's principal Jeremiah Ford confirmed "that the winners of the contest had been chosen, but that Swift, Papa John’s, and Chegg decided to remove Horace Mann from the running because of the way it got its vote." reports The Boston Globe. The final leaderboard doesn't mention Horace Mann nor does it have the final tally of the top five schools. Last we checked in with this online contest, the votes for Horace Mann were coming in fast and furious thanks to being spotlighted on the infamous 4Chan message forum and gaining some support from voters on Reddit. Of couse, there was the mean-ish joke of sending Taylor Swift to perform in front of a school for the deaf, but as some Redditors pointed out, the schools that came in the top five of the contest would be able to get a $10,000 grant. And some Redditors also pointed out what we mentioned back when the voting flurry began: that the sponsors would have the final call in which school won, and that Horace Mann could get disqualified. And that they did. The school isn't walking away with nothing though, as Swift is giving them a nice donation, matched by the contest's sponsors. "Swift decided to give the school a personal donation of $10,000, which was matched by the two sponsor companies as well as Cover Girl and American Greetings. VH1’s Save the Music program has also decided to give Horace Mann another $10,000 in instruments for students," adds The Globe.  “Are we the winner? Absolutely,” Ford said.