The school archives / A fake holiday, January 2007
Andover's Fake Day Off Canceled the Real One
At Andover, the head of school announces a surprise holiday by walking into dinner with a field-hockey stick. In January 2007 the announcement came by email instead, at 8:19 p.m. It was a hoax.
Head of School Day at Phillips Academy Andover began in 1991, according to the school paper, The Phillipian, when a flu outbreak filled the infirmary and the headmaster canceled classes so students could recover. It stuck. When Barbara Chase became head of school in 1994, she added a ritual from the Wheeler School, where she had worked: she appeared at dinner in Commons carrying a girls' field-hockey stick. At Wheeler, she recalled, the principal used to strip down to madras shorts before unveiling the stick.
Madras shorts. Andover kept the stick and dropped the shorts, which is what I would call a measured reform.
On the evening of Wednesday, January 24, 2007, speculation was at an all-time high. There had been several false alarms in Commons. Then, just after 8:19 p.m., an email arrived, apparently from Mrs. Chase, announcing that Head of School Day was Thursday. Students poured out of the library cheering. One student ran a victory lap through Ryley, screaming. The instructional librarian, interrupted mid-lesson, said everyone was "running around like a whirling dervish."
Then the doubts. Not everyone had received the email. And it was dated January 2006. At 8:41 p.m., the real Mrs. Chase sent an email: Thursday was not Head of School Day, and the earlier message was a hoax.
Twenty-two minutes. That is how long a fake holiday lasts at a school full of very bright teenagers, and how long it takes one of them to notice the year.
The next day more than 250 people packed into a room for a forum on the email and another 200 listened on the school radio station. The paper's outgoing editor read an editorial accusing the administration of "making a mountain out of a molehill." Some students called it a joke; the administration called it a hoax. Many said Head of School Day should not be canceled.
After the forum, the associate head of school told the paper that it already had been. The real Head of School Day had been planned for Friday the 26th, two days after the fake email. It was called off because of the email and the reaction.
The real holiday had been two days away. The fake one canceled it.
There was a day off later that winter. The ritual continues: in April 2024, Head of School Raynard Kington announced the holiday by removing his new top hat at an all-school meeting.
We have a family version. Once a year, without warning, my wife announces a "no-homework night" by walking into the kitchen holding a wooden spoon. Last week the middle one walked in holding a wooden spoon. Nobody believed him. He had, he said, checked the date.
Sources
The public records, school pages and published accounts this story draws on. Where the story imagines a scene or a line of dialogue, that is the column’s telling, not a quotation.
- The Phillipian: Prank E-mail Spurs Gossip About Head of School Day phillipian.net
- The Phillipian: PA Responds To False Email With Forum phillipian.net
- The Phillipian: Pranks, of Varying Cleverness, Range From Naked Shapes to Smashed Bananas phillipian.net
- Anabel Bacon: One Last Reflection, The Phillipian (February 9, 2007) phillipian.net
- Kate Wiener: Head of School Day Tradition Began in 1991 Under McNemar (February 5, 2009) phillipian.net
- Andover’s top Instagram posts of 2024 andover.edu