The school archives / A fake holiday, January 2007
Your holiday was two days away
Andover students needed a field-hockey stick. Someone sent an email instead. The real holiday had been two days away.
On a Wednesday evening in January 2007, Andover students were waiting for a field-hockey stick. The Phillipian reported cameras and a semicircle of chairs in Commons, arranged for a clear view of head of school Barbara Landis Chase. Her arrival with the stick meant a day off. But Cluster Dean Peter Washburn phoned her and reported that Thursday was not the day.
Just after 8:19 p.m., an email arrived in the head of school's name announcing that Thursday's classes were cancelled. Students poured out of the library. One described running a victory lap in Ryley before returning and finding the message was fake.
Not everyone had received the email. It carried a date from the year before. At 8:41 p.m., twenty-two minutes after the celebration began, Chase sent a correction: Thursday was not Head of School Day, and the earlier message was a hoax. Her note the following day called the act a betrayal of trust.
You can get a surprising amount of celebrating done in twenty-two minutes. Returning to homework afterward is a different proposition.
Afterward, more than 250 people packed Ropes Salon and roughly 200 more listened on the school radio to debate the prank email. Chase was with the trustees and could not attend.
Students divided over whether the message was a joke or a hoax. A senior named Arjun Sharma received loud applause for asking whether holding a forum over a prank was ridiculous. Others argued the email was a serious matter and that the holiday should not be cancelled for everyone.
Then came the complication. Associate Head of School Rebecca Sykes told the forum there had been no decision to cancel the holiday for the term. Afterward, she told the paper that the planned date had been Friday the 26th—two days after the prank—and that Friday had been cancelled because of the fake email and the reaction.
The real holiday had been two days away. Somehow, the fake one had managed to delay it.
A year later, the Phillipian identified the participants by their own accounts. Dougal Sutherland, by then a student at Swarthmore, said he had turned himself in and received probation. He said the holiday had been cancelled two days after the prank and moved to the following week. He said he had been told that without turning himself in he would have faced at least a suspension.
And then there was Sharma—the senior who had stood at the forum and asked why everyone was there. He told the paper afterward that he had helped research and plan the prank. Sutherland had been the only one whose involvement could be traced. The school, Sutherland said, officially did not know about Sharma.
As contributions to a debate go, asking why there is a debate is quite something when you helped supply the subject.