I purchased a iPad mini from a community yard sale for my sons bday and the previous owner didn't disable the activation lock. Can I somehow reset the ipad for my son? It is at the activation screen where it says hello then asks for language.

Hope you are making progress.

You wrote.... "This really steams me! They should have taken the proper steps before selling it to me and I should have taken more time investigating the iPad before I bought it. "

Don't be too hard on the seller or feel bad about knowing better. The most recent update, which just occurred, has sent iPad, iPhone and iPod owners off their collective nuts. Apple added security measures to the devices without preparing owners for the use of those security measures. Many have complained they have a passcode lock, but never asked for one or had one before.

The improvement to "Find my iPhone/iPod/iPad" is nice if you are prone to loosing your toys. However, these improvements lock the device to the original owner and computer unless that person removes the lock before resale. Dumb, huh?

From what I understand, and the Apple description is awful, the lock can only be turned off by the person that put it on, simply by deactivating the "find my iPad" switch in settings and entering their apple password.

You are not alone. Here's the link:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5395808?answerId=23392300022#23392300022