Terminally Sick Boy Given Truancy Warning

A school has apologized for sending a truancy letter to the mother of a boy suffering from leukemia after she asked to take him out of classes to meet the Pope before he died. Louise Yates asked for permission from St Botolph's School to take her her six-year-old son Travis on a two-day trip to the Vatican in June for a blessing with the Pope. In response she got a letter about truancy and a copy of his attendance record. The school has since apologized and released a statement saying, "We are aware of Travis' illness and have given permission for him to travel to Rome during term-time. Government guidance suggests sending attendance information out with permission letters, but we appreciate in this instance it may not have been appropriate and we would like to apologise if this has caused the family any offence."

Doctors Note

[Joebert]

Did they ask him to bring in a Pope Note when he got back ?

Please excuse Bobbys' absense from class as he was busy being blessed.

The Pope

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[unlametheweak]

I'd be more curious to know if the Pope faith healed him back to health.

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[Asic Eng]

I'd be more curious to know if the Pope faith healed him back to health.

Easy to answer: no he won't. What do you expect: miracles?

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[Genda]

No, but he was able to share the lovely "Pope Soap on a Rope" he got from the Vatican gift shop at show and tell.

Why is this here?

[westlake]

An unfortunately worded form letter is routinely sent out by a secretary who had no reason to know - and no right to know - that the kid was dying.

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[Anonymous Coward]

Because the school fucked up. All they had to do was tell the secretary "don't send this boy's family a letter, he is excused." No reason necessary.

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[amiga3D]

When I first read the title I felt the same outrage you express. After reading the entire thing I can see how it happened. It was a mistake. One the school explained, owned up to and apologized for. It was not done maliciously but through typical bureaucratic red tape. What's rare about this is the apology. I don't know how many times I've seen a screw up like this where when the backlash hits the bureaucrats circle the wagons and start to get defensive, never wanting to admit the mistake.

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[spacefiddle]

owned up to

Funny, what i saw was "uh.... the Gummint suggested we do it!" and "may not have been appropriate" and "if this has caused the family any offense." Moar qualifiers and excuses plz!

It's your responsibility to know what automated frickin' processes kick in, and to know when to flag an exception and stop them. "Gee, we don't really run our own systems any more, the Computer did it" is the modern version of "i was just following stupid orders." No. Ignorance of your own operations is not an excuse; it is, in

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[The Mysterious Dr. X]

I've seen quite a few community events designed to help terminally ill children in some way, like fund-raisers for trips to see the Pope, bone marrow drives to find a donor match (which may or may not apply in this case, depending on type of leukemia), or to raise money for other expensive treatments. I don't know if it's the norm, since terminal patients who don't have such publicity would be unknown to me, but people frequently do these things to "raise awareness," not to protect their right to privacy. T

Wait, what?!

[Kokuyo]

The kid is terminally ill and still has to go to school? Was he Hitler in a previous life or why else would anyone be so heartless as to make him attend such a behaviour correction centre when he clearly does not have a future for which he has to prepare?

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[Perl-Pusher]

Actually, its mostly Pakistani now.

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[mvdw]

I'm sure a lot of kids in that situation would rather lead a "normal life" than be cooped up at home with no friends, nothing to do but play playstation and watch dvds, etc.

Maybe the secretary _should_ have known

[smchris]

One of the famous comparative studies of how American kids start out on par and decline relative to the performance of other countries was done comparing Japan, Taiwan and the U.S. They concluded, for instance, that Japanese cramming was more of a myth than thought. While the American kids might be occupied with sports after school, the Japanese kids might be occupied with something like calligraphy that was also non-academic.

The most striking difference between countries was the percentage of kids who wer

Why bother with school?

[Bert64]

School is meant to prepare kids for adult life, but this kid is dying and won't reach adulthood, so is there really any point in him attending school? Why not just let him enjoy what time he has rather than trying to force him to learn stuff he will never use?

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[Adriax]

Hope that the disease will go into remission or someone will find a cure, or atleast a treatment to prolong his life.
Legal requirements that ALL children must be registered and attending school if they are physically able to.
The desire to give the kid atleast a semblance of a normal life, with interaction with others his own age.

Free England

[Dunbal]

We are aware of Travis' illness and have given permission for him to travel

In England, schools have to give permission for their students to travel? WTF? If they consider themselves legal guardians, perhaps they'd like to take a share of all the other responsibilities of parenting, too?