‘You can’t go to the prom,’ dead girl told
p2pnet news view P2P:- Megan Gillan’s parents had a letter from her school, Macclesfield High.
Macclesfield is a market town in Cheshire, England, and the letter threatened to ban her from the end of the year prom. The reason? Poor attendance, says the Macclesfield Express.
But the pic on the right comes from a Bebo tribute site set up after Megan, 15, was found dead in her bedroom — long before the letter from Macclesfield High School head Ged Ward arrived at her parent’s home.
“I screamed when I first saw it,” the story has her monther, Margaret saying. “If they want her to attend that much I’ll take Megan’s remains to the prom.
Megan had been dead for two months, said her mother, going on, “Megan would have loved going to the prom, she planned to go with a group of friends, she was really looking forward to it.”
According to Ward, the terrible mistake was caused by a software glitch.
The Macclesfield Express has him saying the school uses SIMS (School Information Management Systems) made by Capita which in its web page suggests, “Use this website to identify how to harness the power of real-time data and make real-time interventions work for pupil teacher and school.”
When a child has stopped attending a school, “for whatever reason, the software will allow the school to continue to produce letters to their parents as occasionally it is necessary to do so,” the story has a company spokesman saying, adding:
“It appears that this is what has happened in this case which everyone involved deeply regrets. It is the first time such an occurrence has been brought to our attention. We have all been saddened that this caused so much distress to the family. We are committed to making changes to the software so schools are asked to confirm, when generating letters, whether or not they wish them to go out to families of pupils no longer attending the school. The changes we make to the software should prevent this situation from happening again.”
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Macclesfield Express – Final insult, March 25, 2009
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March 29th, 2009 at 2:30 pm
This is like a software glitch straight out of the 1970’s. I thought such things were over and done with by now. It’s amazing that they still can occur. Haven’t these people ever heard of things like Use Cases? Who does their A&D?
March 31st, 2009 at 6:33 pm
OMG! Shame on that school! I am so sorry for your loss, Life had just begun to end so soon. The school should make a public apology and start making sure their records are as current as possibe!