Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Hello,

My name is Braeden Wodehouse and I have just completed my first year at Queens in the Arts program. I didnt come around to check my final grade marks as soon as they were posted due to my demanding summer job as a paving and landscape labourer working from 7am to 6pm on most days. I also had my baseball season start rather soon after the end of the school year, therefore I didnt think about checking my marks until a couple months later. When I did check my marks I was absolutley devestated, as I managed to fail both my politics and psychology courses which were quite demanding courses. I can say with certainty that my poor academic performance was a product of a very large and serious legal altercation that occured in March during the school year. On Saturday night/Sunday morning the 25th of March I had gone out to one of the local bars in kingston with some of my friends, seeing as it was one of our last nights to enjoy together before having to study for exams and finish some final course work. The explanation to what occured that night is quite long so i'll keep it short. That night I found myself in the wrong place at the wrong time. Throughout the night several small events (me accidently falling back towards someone, causing them to step down off a platform, and them believing i had intentionally pushed them off the platform) had led up to me being harrassed and assaulted in the bar and upon exiting the bar at around 1:00 I was struck in the face by a Queens graduate, and was still somehow arrested for defending myself by throwing a defensive punch back. I was charged with assault and the kingston police wrote me up and brought me in. It was a devestating event in my life and I am still currently fighting the case with my lawyer. I have several pieces of paperwork from the police and Queens Legal Aid concerning the issue. This incident was extremley unfortunate as it was such a crucial time in the school year and it is an issue that has very long term affects and repercussions. During this time as you could imagine, being my first criminal offence and being a first year student at a prestigious University, my parents didnt take it very well. My life from that day forward was engulfed with severe stress, anxiety, fear, and depression. From then until the rest of the school year I had to deal with finding a lawyer, talking to my parents about what happened, collecting legal information from my witnesses and having to lie to people about me banging my nose on my door (when really i was given a bloody and swollen nose from the punch). The rest of the school year was a huge struggle for me as I have ADHD, which makes focusing on tasks for long periods of time already hard enough, but then having to factor in having this huge legal case near the end of the year made focusing on school work and studying extremely hard because I was so overwhelmed and distracted with this on-going issue. Dealing with this situation and finding time to study, finish essays and assignments and grab food whenever i needed, became very tedious and overwhelming that I physically wasnt able to cope. I had little time to study as much as I had hoped to for certain exams (ones that I knew would be challenging like POLS and PSYCH).

This was my first year here at Queens and I absolutely loved it and the people and experiences i had and things ive learned. I love this school and the friends ive made over the year and ones who im planning on (supposed to be) living with next year I dont blame this event on anything other than myself being in the wrong place at the wrong time, I have made a mistake and I have (and still am) been dealing with it. This incident damaged my morales and took my mind away from what was most important- my academic performance.