NASHVILLE,
Tenn.- Taylor Swift may soon be performing
somewhere she never expected thanks to a group of dedicated Internet trolls.
After discovering
that Papa John's was sponsoring a contest to send Swift to perform at whatever
school got the most votes through a Facebook contest, users of Reddit, 4chan
and other Internet sites have conspired to send the songstress to The Horace Mann
School for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing in Allston, Massachusetts.
This prank follows another recent Internet movement in which
voters sent rapper Pitbull to a Walmart in Alaska.
While many believe the effort to be a cruel prank at the
expense of deaf students, other believe that Swift's appearance at the school
could be a positive experience for students. Swift appears to be well aware of
the bullying and teasing these students might encounter with songs like the
recently popular "Mean".
"Actually, live (very, very loud) music is the
type of music that completely deaf people can enjoy," said one Reddit commenter.
The Principal of Horace Mann, Jeremiah Ford, told the Boston
Globe that he hopes the school wins the contest, no matter what.
"I could be upset about that, I could get stuck in that
anger, but that's not where we should be in this world. My thing is, we
understand what your intent was — shame on you — because you have not been
educated. But now we will educate you." Ford explained that his school has
hosted many activities with music and that his students enjoy live
performances. Not all students are 100 percent deaf, and others can experience
the vibration of sound,"
While the school was ahead in votes, the official rules of
the contest state that Swift could still opt out of the performance.
