In a tumultuous, month-long scandal that has rocketed the Pinewood community, two junior high student council members diverted funds from the annual Bake Wars fundraiser to front-row seats to Taylor Swift’s sold-out Eras Tour.

The funds were stolen by eighth grade student council President Isabella Wang and Publicity Representative Camilla Shtrom, both of whom have spoken at length about their love for Swift and how they would stop at nothing to get floor seats and merch for the concert.

According to reports from this scandal, they saw their opportunity when organizing the junior high Bake Wars, a fundraiser hosted annually to raise money for charity. This year, the eighth grade beat the seventh grade earnings by over $2,000. Wang and Shtrom took this as an opportunity to divert the funds to the Eras Tour tickets.

When brainstorming potential charities to donate to at a student council meeting in January, Wang immediately suggested that the funds should go towards a charity named “The Archer.” When questioned about the charity, which most students hadn’t heard of, Wang said that the charity is helping build rehabilitation centers for traumatized puppies. The student council unanimously agreed to donate to this charity, and the funds were sent. This plan was working all too well until another student council member saw that Shtrom’s account name “sparklepony1989” was on the donation’s GoFundMe page. By that time, Wang had already used the funds to buy exclusive floor seats to the Eras Tour.

“Isabella forced me to do this to follow a long line of Bake Wars embezzlement,” Shtrom said.

After learning this jaw-dropping information, I reached out to Wang for a comment multiple times, but I was not given a response. Shtrom’s jaw-dropping statement begs the question of how the student council has been stealing funds and why no one has done anything.

The student council advisors have not been able to get the money back from the GoFundMe page but believe they will be able to soon.

Wang and Shtrom are expected to resign from their student council positions. Vice president Riya Srivastava will take Wang’s place as the new student council president.