Relieved after finishing four of her finals, but stressed trying to cram for the last three, junior Annalisa Huge had already spent multiple hours studying for her history final and decided to take a break. As a way to relax Huge, like many other BSM students, went on Facebook to find that school had supposedly been canceled.

Similarly, sophomore Amanda Gales also got a call from a friend who told her school was canceled the next day. She questioned her in disbelief, but clicked hesitantly on the link to Kare11.com that was posted on nearly everyone’s page. “It transferred me to the Kare11 School Alert page, and sure enough it said Benilde-St. Margaret’s is closed for Friday, Jan. 16,” said Gales.

Huge checked the website for herself and her mom confirmed that there must not be school the next day. Filled with relief, Huge called a few of her friends who might not have heard, and then stopped studying and went to bed. “My mom told me to get some rest; it would have been pointless to stay up studying for finals that were supposedly canceled,” said Huge.

But the next morning Huge, Gales, and numerous other students were abruptly woken up from sleep by parents announcing that there had been a mistake and school was back on. “I started freaking out, begging my mom to let me stay home since I wasn’t prepared for any of my finals,” said Huge.

Yet it wasn’t just students who were confused; Principal Sue Skinner, along with President Bob Tift, and other faculty were at a meeting in California when all this happened. “Around midnight we were notified that BSM was supposedly canceled, and immediately we knew there was some mistake,” said Dr. Skinner.

Although it was rumored that some junior boys figured out the code and hacked into the school-alert system, the administration’s opinion differs: “We don’t believe that a student got the password or is responsible for this. I really think somehow there was just a mistake,” said Dr. Skinner.

Many BSM students came to school mad and stressed out because of their lack of preparation, and many students begged parents to let them stay home. Surprisingly Mrs. Kathy Jacobson only had to make three phone calls to houses, and only one student completely missed his finals. But according to Mrs. Jacobson there also were a oddly high number of “sick” kids for a finals day.

Although Mr. Picard remarked that it was probably more beneficial for students to have gone to bed rather than stay up studying, many students beg to differ: “I know I could have done way better on my final if I would’ve kept studying,” said Huge, “It really isn’t fair that this ruined my grade all because of a big miscommunication; even though it wasn’t [BSM’s] fault, they should have done something about it.”