Not Fair! School For The Deaf Disqualified From Winning Free Taylor Swift Concert

The Good News: They Won A $50,000 Consolation Prize

What started out as a prank has turned into a news story - one with an unhappy ending, but a better epilogue. Unbeknownst to students at the Horace Mann School for the Deaf in Allston, Massachusetts, someone - rumored to be an Internet prankster - entered the school in a contest to win a free concert by Taylor Swift. But thanks to an outpouring of good-natured votes, the school actually won. The students were elated, with their principal telling the press they "loved live music."

Here's where things get shady, however. The contest's two corporate sponsors - Papa John's and textbook company Chegg - weren't thrilled about the winning school. Nothing personal against the deaf students, mind you. They just didn't feel Horace Mann's entry came from a good place. So another school took the top prize instead.

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Crap move on their part? You betcha. They did, however, attempt to make things up to the school by each donating $10,000 to Horace Mann's music program. Cover Girl, American Greetings and Swift herself matched their donations. The total haul for the school: a cool $50,000. Plus, Swift offered all the students free tickets to her next concert when she comes to town.

"Are we the winner?" the school's Principal Ford asked. "Absolutely."