Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Dr. Jenn Stephenson,

My name is Jake Denison, a 3rd Year Geography student and I am appealing to defer the Winter 2021 semester as I am unable to complete my studies due to two concussions I have had this semester. I am currently enrolled in 4 classes and they are as follows, GEOL 106, DEVS 250, GPHY 254, and GPHY 330. I am asking for the ability to drop these classes without academic penalty as my extenuating circumstance is entirely out of my control.
I was actively participating in all my classes for the month of January and the first 2 weeks of February until I incurred my first concussion. On the night of February 12, I was outside of my house here in Kingston at 290 Frontenac Street where I was outside shovelling the snow off of my front walkway. As I was shovelling I heard a commotion from outside a neighbouring house and out of curiosity I walked to the sidewalk to see what was going on. The commotion was a man and a woman presumably a couple getting into a verbal altercation which became physical as the man began shoving and hitting the woman. I immediately began yelling at him to stop abusing her to which he immediately turned his attention to me and ran straight towards me. Without hesitation he grabbed the shovel from my hands and struck me across the face which knocked me unconscious and left me with a deep gouge just above my left eyebrow. My housemates heard the commotion and came outside to find me unconscious and bleeding from my face on the sidewalk and told me that the man had grabbed the woman and fled the scene. 911 was called and police and paramedics arrived to take me to KGH where I spent the night in hospital getting 4 stitches in my forehead. The following day I returned home to Ottawa and began experiencing nausea, dizziness and headaches throughout the day and under the advice of the doctor who saw me at KGH I spent the night at the Ottawa General Hospital where I was diagnosed with a concussion and told to limit my screen time and spend the next week resting. Following my week of rest, I began feeling better and was able to complete some tests and assignments and was almost caught up on the work I missed.
On March 5th I was entering my house in Kingston and lost my balance entering the front door and fell head first into the door frame which knocked me unconscious for 15 seconds or so. I thought I was fine but in the following days I began feeling the same symptoms I had following my first concussion, so I went into Hotel Dieu Hospital on the 8th where I was diagnosed with my second concussion. I was told to limit screen time and rest for a week again, I expected to be back to normal after a week but ever since the second concussion I experience headaches after around 30 minutes of doing school work. The reason I did not drop the courses prior to the deadline was because I truly believed I could complete the work and my second concussion occurred on the day of the deadline. I should have submitted this appeal earlier I had just hoped I could manage my symptoms and my workload however I now realize this is not the case.
Moving forward, I hope to make a full recovery and I plan to enroll in 1 or 2 courses over the summer to ensure I do not fall too far behind in my program. I will be enrolled as a full-time student for the Fall 2021 semester as I expect to have no lingering symptoms from the concussions and will able to complete a full workload.

Sincerely,

Jake Denison