activation lock for ipad2

Attempting to reactivate an old ipad 2 for our school as with current pandemic there is a greater need for devices to work from home. We are now pulling out the golden oldies to increase what we can provide the students. Since the Ipad has been originally activated by a past teacher, the teacher that activated this IPad no longer works in our school and was good to leave without passing on the activation lock details.

We have been in touch with the person in question, she no longer uses the email address and doesnt remember the activation lock info supplied when setting up the device, that has killed any chance of password resets etc.

Is there a way to have the lock reset or deactivated to allow the use of the device for school purposes. Again its been a long time since the device has been purchased so any proof of purchase since this time would have disappeared with time.

Thank you very much for your help. Would really hate to have to bin the device when one of the pupils can make good use of it.

Cheers,

Kev