Swift and contest sponsors remove Horace Mann school from a contest to have the singer perform at any institution in the US

Taylor Swift sends cash to Boston deaf school but decides not to play there

An irony-laden internet campaign to get Taylor Swift to perform at a school for the deaf has failed – but the institution will still be awarded a substantial sum of cash.

Users of 4Chan and Reddit gamed an online contest to send Swift to perform at whichever school in the US earned the most votes by encouraging people to vote for the Horace Mann School for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.

Swift, her management and contest sponsors removed the school from the contest because of the way it obtained votes, according to the school’s principal, Jeremiah Ford.

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Ford told the Boston Globe that Swift and four other organizations instead chose to give $10,000 apiece to the school.

“Are we the winner? Absolutely,” Ford told the Globe.

The competition attracted nationwide attention in August when Reddit and 4Chan decided to take over the contest. Some critics accused the websites of being insensitive towards the hearing-impaired community.

Others voted for the school in an effort to bring awareness to the hearing impaired community’s ability to appreciate music. Ford also appropriated the trolling campaign and publicly welcomed the opportunity to have Swift perform at the school.

Swift, along with event sponsors Chegg, Papa John’s pizza, CoverGirl and American Greetings, pledged $10,000 each to the school. VH1’s Save the Music program also donated $10,000 worth of instruments to the school, which has discussed reviving its music education program. Horace Mann students will also receive tickets to Swift’s next local performance.

Earlier this year, online trolls successfully sent Pitbull to the most remote Walmart in the US as part of a contest to get the rapper to perform at whichever store location received the most Facebook likes. The journalist who started the trolling campaign joined Pitbull at his performance in Kodiak, Alaska – population 6,256.