A six-year-old boy forged a dismissal note with a highlighter pen on finger painting paper to get out of an after-school program – and his school accepted it.

Gannon Farley, from Middleboro, Massachusetts, was fed up with playing with Legos at his day care center and wanted to go home to play on his Wii instead. So the Henry B. Burkland Elementary School first-grader forged a handwritten note in fluorescent yellow marker, which said: ‘Dery [dear] Mrs. Trotty [Trottier]. Gannon is not going to the prgrogm [program].'

His teacher was suspicious and sent Gannon to see the school secretary for approval. The secretary tried to call an old telephone number the school had listed for Gannon's mother, Amie Nay, but could not get through. After leaving a voice message, the school sent the six-year-old home. He rode the bus by himself to an empty house. Nay had no idea Gannon had been sent home until she received a call from the school coordinator saying her son had not turned up to his after-school program.