Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To Whom It May Concern,

I am writing this email in regards to a late academic consideration to drop a course due to emergency reasons. I have attached a letter below from palliative care regarding the severity of my mother¿¿s illness which helps explain why I am dropping the course LLCU 214 (Mafia Culture). The timeline of this event stems from October and has been ongoing since that time. My mother (Jocelyn Meneses) has stage 4 metastatic breast cancer that has spread to her lungs. Due to this illness, my mother¿¿s immune system has been severely compromised and has made her more susceptible to other illnesses. Unfortunately, her immune system has impacted her as she contracted a very serious pneumonia that cannot be cured. With this in mind, she has been in and out of St. Michaels and Toronto General hospital since October, making it very difficult for me to attend classes, as it has taken a significant impact on my ability to focus on my course work and class punctuality because my anxiety gets triggered as I worry about her health status.

In November, she was readmitted to St. Michaels hospital on an emergency basis and when I went down to see her, I was talked to by the main palliative nurse and I was told that my mother only has 4 months to live. Hearing this news has devastated me and has pushed me into a very hard position where I had to make the best of my situation. I decided to go home to take care of my mother as she really doesn¿¿t have anyone but myself to support her. She has an oxygen tank at home (Barrie) so she can breathe properly. She also has type 2 diabetes, which is very difficult to manage because she has trouble eating and swallowing that deters her from getting carbohydrates and nutrients into her body. This issue of swallowing causes more complications as she faces random sugar lows and if not treated, she could go into a diabetic coma, which is very serious.

Since these incidents, I have already submitted an academic consideration request (Since October) that helps me with accommodations as majority of my courses (not including LLCU 214) can be done from home and my professors for those courses have been accommodating. Although, for the course LLCU 214, it requires me to attend classes and partake tests on campus in Kingston. This has been an issue for me as I have made efforts to contact my professors about potentially doing something for me that is more accommodating for my circumstances. But unfortunately, it has been hard to keep steady contact with them and has put me in a position where I am severely disadvantaged to finish the course promptly putting me very behind. My professor and TA for the course have actually suggested this course of action in appealing to drop a course late when I last contacted them.

As for myself, I am a fourth year Political Studies major who deals with ADHD, Anxiety, and Depression (I can provide a letter from my psychiatrist that outlines this). Due to my circumstances, it makes it very hard for me to even open the computer as I get really bad anxiety answering emails because it makes me feel like I am so behind in my classes and puts me into a worse mental state. On top of this, I have to always be watching my mom so she doesn¿¿t choke, go into a diabetic low, cook/feed her, and making sure she takes her medications on time. With these circumstances, it was hard for me to drop the course LLCU 214 before the November 1st deadline because I have a lot of stuff on my plate that puts a great deal of stress on myself and my ability to complete my requirements for the course as well dropping it.

As for next semester, I decided taking a reduced course load (1 course) and I am planning to complete my remaining courses in my fifth year to graduate. My circumstances are very serious as I do not have a lot of time left to spend time with my mom. We also reside in Barrie which makes it especially challenging for myself to be with my mother as Kingston is 5 hours away. I am just super anxious and scared for the future of my mom¿¿s life and it makes it very difficult to focus on anything else but my mom because she is all I really have as a support mechanism.

If there is anything I need to provide, please let me know and I will get that information back to you as soon as I get some free time. I appreciate you reading this email and I am hoping for your kind consideration. I will also be using documentation that was accompanied with my extenuating circumstance form (Noted below)

Best Regards,
Tyson Tan
20020474