A father found out that his son had died in a road accident when other parents texted and emailed him after they had read the news on their school's website.
Christopher Avery-Wright was making his way to hospital after getting a call to tell him his 13-year-old son William had been knocked down by a car.
As he raced to his son's bedside, messages of condolence began arriving on his phone - before the police or his wife had broken the shocking news of William's death to him.
William died after being hit by a car as he and other pupils from the £30,000-a-year Worth School in Sussex crossed a B road to reach the school's rugby pitches.
His grief-stricken family says the children should have been supervised by an adult as they crossed.
Mr and Mrs Avery-Wright have sued the school for alleged failures in their duty of care to their son. They are furious that Mr Avery-Wright found out the news of his death from other parents.
Mrs Avery-Wright said the family have been living a 'life sentence' since William's death in November 2011. She said they would be happy not to 'receive a penny' in compensation from the school as long as it accepted its mistakes.
"The school made the decision to post the news on its website almost immediately - before William's body had even been formally identified," his mum said.
"We have no idea why the school would have done that. My husband should not have found out on his way to the hospital. I just don't know what they were thinking not escorting the children across the road."
The heartbroken mum added that she had 'trusted' the school to look after William and they had not done so.
"You do not expect your child to go to school, but not come home. That is why we feel the school have to take some responsibility," she said.
A spokeswoman for Worth School told said yesterday the case was ongoing and that they had tried to resolve it with the family.
"The school attempted last year to resolve a claim under the fatal accidents act but unfortunately that remains outstanding," she said. "On the date of the accident the school attempted at all times to act correctly and it deeply regrets if any of its actions contributed to the distress of Mr and Mrs Avery-Wright."
"The school continues to feel every sympathy and extend condolences to the Avery-Wright family in their tragic loss."