Three-year upper Brock Obrama’s status as a student of Phillips Academy was called into question last week, raising questions of his eligibility for School President. The debate began when pictures of an alleged acceptance letter to Obrama from Phillips Exeter Academy were leaked on the Internet. Within minutes of their posting, cries of outrage sprang up around campus. A group of students and faculty quickly formed in opposition to Obrama’s campaign. Calling themselves “Accepters”, they believe that the letter provides proof that Obrama is not a student at Andover, despite his three years of attendance at Phillips Academy. The discovery that Obrama’s grandfather was a graduate of Phillips Exeter Academy further exacerbated the situation. In response to the allegations, Obrama released a photocopy of his acceptance letter from Andover, as well as his enrollment form for Andover. Both documents were examined by Admission Officers, as well as forensic scientists and were declared to be authentic. Despite resounding confirmations of authenticity from experts, some people continue to doubt the documents. One “Accepter” claimed to have been working in the Admissions Office in the year of Obrama’s acceptance, “I worked in Admissions that year,” the anonymous source said, “and that year we printed the acceptance letters on blue, not yellow paper.” With the addition of such claims, most “Accepters” consider the documents irrelevant in the debate. Accusations of forgery were not limited to one side. On closer inspection of the original Exeter acceptance letter photos, it became clear that the letter was in fact an Andover letter with the name “Exeter” scrawled in red crayon across the top. When the original source of the photos was questioned, he said the photos were authentic. Yet when confronted with the crayon evidence he explained that, “I saw the originals, but before I could post them an albino assassin broke into my dorm room and stole them. I used crayon in my attempt to capture the original letter.” When students and faculty were asked to weigh in on the debate, their responses were varied. The current School President was asked what he thought of the issue and said, “Brock has been a friend of mine since his first day as a Junior in Bertha Bailey. I find it ridiculous that these accusations were made in the first place. This is absolutely mind-boggling. I haven’t been this upset since Lost was cancelled.” Not all students share their President’s beliefs. A member of the Phillips Academy Republican’s Club expressed his opinions on the issue, “Of course he’s an Exonian. I mean look at him! I have a friend, who has a brother, who knows this guy who goes to Exeter, and he says that he sees Brock all the time. He even sent me this picture of Brock wearing a red shirt–wearing a RED SHIRT! Do you know anyone who wears red shirts and isn’t an Exeter geek? Also, I hear he is a secret Deerfield snob.” The debate will reach its conclusion this week when the current Student Council Members will meet with Dean of Students Paul Murphy to reach a final decision Obrama’s eligibility in the upcoming election. -Scott Cuthell
