Manage Appeals
Petition Type: New
ID: 8066
Submitted: August 13, 2021 at 11:12:10 AM
First Name: Dorothy-Jean
Last Name: Evans
Student Number: 3752528
Email: 3de1@queensu.ca
Degree Program: B.A.
Plan: Psychology
Level of Study: 3
Petition Categories
Petition Categories: Drop a course after the academic deadline
Code: FRST 105
Term: Summer
Year: 2019
Petition Category: Drop a course after the academic deadline
Code: FREN 106
Term: Summer
Year: 2019
Petition Category: Drop a course after the academic deadline
Petition Letter
Petition Letter: To Whom It May Concern,
I am writing to you to request an appeal due to missing the deadline to drop two courses in 2019. I have recently returned to Queen??s in hopes of graduating but following a conversation with an academic advisor have realized that my GPA is far too low to achieve this and has been impacted by these two courses on my transcript.
I will provide you with some context about my life which will hopefully help you to understand why I failed to drop these courses appropriately within the expected time frame.
In 2013, the Children??s Aid Society became involved in my family??s life due to domestic violence involving myself and my four children. Following an investigation, my then husband was criminally charged with sexually assaulting our four year old daughter. What followed was a lengthy and difficulty journey through both the criminal court and family court system, at one point with my ex-husband filing over 50 motions in just over 12 months. I could provide you with more details around the ongoing abuse that occurred during the access visits (and will if necessary) but suffice to say that my family has had a very long and painful journey.
In 2018, the Office of the Children??s lawyer and a social worker were finally appointed to represent my children. For nearly a year, they met with the children and the collaterals to determine what would be in their best interests. In January 2019, disclosure meeting was held and the recommendation was that no access should take place with my ex-husband and the children. We settled out of court on one supervised access visit per year which, at the time, I believed would be easy for my children and felt that it was time for me to heal and resume my life.
I registered for courses at Queen??s that Spring/Summer session believing that the stress of the visit would be minimal and I was very wrong. The children were very distressed for several weeks before and after the visit and required intensive care with their therapists and referrals to outside agencies. Shortly following this visit, my youngest child was diagnosed with Selective Mutism, most likely a result of the trauma, and this added yet another issue to access resources around. In the thick of all of this, my commitment to my education was lost and I failed to not only complete the courses but also to drop them at the appropriate time.
The children and I have since continued with counselling and accessing various resources in the community, including pediatric care and Maltby services. I have also accessed support services at Queen?? with Amber McCart. As a result, their healing (and my own) has been more focused and successful. While he still has an access visit each year, we are more prepared for this and therefore better able to deal with the big emotions surrounding it.
I am currently enrolled in two classes, one is complete and the other is nearing the end. I have been incredibly successful in both classes, averaging around 85% in both of them. I self-advocated to ensure that I had the appropriate accommodations in place to be successful in the completion of my studies but have not needed to access these supports at all during this spring and summer session. All assignments have been completed on time or early and I have participated in quizzes and online discussion forums as expected by the professors. I would happily encourage you to communicate with either of them to validate this.
I appreciate the time you have taken to read through this letter and I am happy to provide you with any documentation you would like to see. For the purpose of verifying dates, I will simply provide you with the letter from the Office Of The Children??s Lawyer indicating the date of the disclosure meeting and the certificate of our divorce following this. I do have documentation from the Children??s Aid Society and the Kingston Police if you would like to see this to verify the abuse but my hope is that that will not be necessary as it is quite personal and impacts my children's right to privacy around some very sensitive matters. Please advise if there is any other documentation that you would like to see in consideration of this request.
I am asking for you to please consider allowing the two courses for which I was enrolled in 2019 to be dropped even though I missed the academic deadline. I did not realize that I was able to appeal this until I spoke with an academic advisor this week and then I immediately began this process of submitting it to you. Again, thank you for your time and consideration and I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Dorothy Evans
375-2528
I am writing to you to request an appeal due to missing the deadline to drop two courses in 2019. I have recently returned to Queen??s in hopes of graduating but following a conversation with an academic advisor have realized that my GPA is far too low to achieve this and has been impacted by these two courses on my transcript.
I will provide you with some context about my life which will hopefully help you to understand why I failed to drop these courses appropriately within the expected time frame.
In 2013, the Children??s Aid Society became involved in my family??s life due to domestic violence involving myself and my four children. Following an investigation, my then husband was criminally charged with sexually assaulting our four year old daughter. What followed was a lengthy and difficulty journey through both the criminal court and family court system, at one point with my ex-husband filing over 50 motions in just over 12 months. I could provide you with more details around the ongoing abuse that occurred during the access visits (and will if necessary) but suffice to say that my family has had a very long and painful journey.
In 2018, the Office of the Children??s lawyer and a social worker were finally appointed to represent my children. For nearly a year, they met with the children and the collaterals to determine what would be in their best interests. In January 2019, disclosure meeting was held and the recommendation was that no access should take place with my ex-husband and the children. We settled out of court on one supervised access visit per year which, at the time, I believed would be easy for my children and felt that it was time for me to heal and resume my life.
I registered for courses at Queen??s that Spring/Summer session believing that the stress of the visit would be minimal and I was very wrong. The children were very distressed for several weeks before and after the visit and required intensive care with their therapists and referrals to outside agencies. Shortly following this visit, my youngest child was diagnosed with Selective Mutism, most likely a result of the trauma, and this added yet another issue to access resources around. In the thick of all of this, my commitment to my education was lost and I failed to not only complete the courses but also to drop them at the appropriate time.
The children and I have since continued with counselling and accessing various resources in the community, including pediatric care and Maltby services. I have also accessed support services at Queen?? with Amber McCart. As a result, their healing (and my own) has been more focused and successful. While he still has an access visit each year, we are more prepared for this and therefore better able to deal with the big emotions surrounding it.
I am currently enrolled in two classes, one is complete and the other is nearing the end. I have been incredibly successful in both classes, averaging around 85% in both of them. I self-advocated to ensure that I had the appropriate accommodations in place to be successful in the completion of my studies but have not needed to access these supports at all during this spring and summer session. All assignments have been completed on time or early and I have participated in quizzes and online discussion forums as expected by the professors. I would happily encourage you to communicate with either of them to validate this.
I appreciate the time you have taken to read through this letter and I am happy to provide you with any documentation you would like to see. For the purpose of verifying dates, I will simply provide you with the letter from the Office Of The Children??s Lawyer indicating the date of the disclosure meeting and the certificate of our divorce following this. I do have documentation from the Children??s Aid Society and the Kingston Police if you would like to see this to verify the abuse but my hope is that that will not be necessary as it is quite personal and impacts my children's right to privacy around some very sensitive matters. Please advise if there is any other documentation that you would like to see in consideration of this request.
I am asking for you to please consider allowing the two courses for which I was enrolled in 2019 to be dropped even though I missed the academic deadline. I did not realize that I was able to appeal this until I spoke with an academic advisor this week and then I immediately began this process of submitting it to you. Again, thank you for your time and consideration and I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Dorothy Evans
375-2528
Document: IMG_3156.jpg
Documentation Detail: Legal document
Decision Letters
Amendment to Appeal 8066
Relevant Petition: 8066
New Information: Good Morning,
I am struggling a bit with how to answer your email. I think I hoped to provide you with context around my life and that of my children in order for you to better understand what we had been through and how it impacted my studies.
My ex-husband was initially charged with sexual interference and sexual assault in 2013, when my daughters were 1, 4 and 6. It took six years for it to finally be resolved in early 2019 and I truly believed that I would then be able to move forward with my life and this included completing my studies. I did engage in the courses initially and was quite successful, particularly in French. However, as the date of the annual access visit (this part of our legal agreement was included in the initial paperwork, the date was earlier in August 2019 but the agreement allowed for one visit per year) became imminent, the struggles with my children became greater. There were many symptoms of chronic PTSD that became overwhelming - sleep disruptions, nightmares, flashbacks, anxiety, fear, and so on. My ex-husband's behaviour during the visit did not help as he criticized their support networks and disclosed some of what professionals had discussed during the assessment, which in turn led to a need for healing from the experience. These challenging behaviours seemed to increase as the visitation got closer and subsided a couple of weeks afterwards.
Unfortunately, I was also overwhelmed with what was happening. I naively believed this visit would be 'easy' because the children knew it was the only one for a year. I felt that it was time to carry on with my goals but this proved to be a mistake. I lost track of deadlines for coursework and drop/add dates due to what was happening with the children. I felt very embarrassed and ashamed because of my inability to manage all that was happening and didn't reach out for support from Queen's at the time.
As cliche, as it sounds, this taught me that healing is not linear and I needed to adjust the expectations I had for all of us moving forward.
The documents I provided to you were simply to give you a time reference for why I felt I would be successful given the completion of the legal matters. I am not sure how I can qualify the trauma we endured without disclosing the documents relating specifically to the abuse. I have reached out to my support at Queen's and she has written a letter to support my appeal. I will send it along tomorrow once her final edits are complete. I have also now completed both of my summer term courses for this year and have received A as a final mark in one of them and, while not formally posted on Solus yet, I believe a 97% in the second course. I am trying very hard to rebuild my life for the well-being of myself and my children, it is not an easy road but I am committed to working hard and accessing support as needed.
Thanks again for taking the time to read through this information, I am hopeful that this provides you with the additional information needed and I will send the letter along some time tomorrow.
Dorothy Evans
I am struggling a bit with how to answer your email. I think I hoped to provide you with context around my life and that of my children in order for you to better understand what we had been through and how it impacted my studies.
My ex-husband was initially charged with sexual interference and sexual assault in 2013, when my daughters were 1, 4 and 6. It took six years for it to finally be resolved in early 2019 and I truly believed that I would then be able to move forward with my life and this included completing my studies. I did engage in the courses initially and was quite successful, particularly in French. However, as the date of the annual access visit (this part of our legal agreement was included in the initial paperwork, the date was earlier in August 2019 but the agreement allowed for one visit per year) became imminent, the struggles with my children became greater. There were many symptoms of chronic PTSD that became overwhelming - sleep disruptions, nightmares, flashbacks, anxiety, fear, and so on. My ex-husband's behaviour during the visit did not help as he criticized their support networks and disclosed some of what professionals had discussed during the assessment, which in turn led to a need for healing from the experience. These challenging behaviours seemed to increase as the visitation got closer and subsided a couple of weeks afterwards.
Unfortunately, I was also overwhelmed with what was happening. I naively believed this visit would be 'easy' because the children knew it was the only one for a year. I felt that it was time to carry on with my goals but this proved to be a mistake. I lost track of deadlines for coursework and drop/add dates due to what was happening with the children. I felt very embarrassed and ashamed because of my inability to manage all that was happening and didn't reach out for support from Queen's at the time.
As cliche, as it sounds, this taught me that healing is not linear and I needed to adjust the expectations I had for all of us moving forward.
The documents I provided to you were simply to give you a time reference for why I felt I would be successful given the completion of the legal matters. I am not sure how I can qualify the trauma we endured without disclosing the documents relating specifically to the abuse. I have reached out to my support at Queen's and she has written a letter to support my appeal. I will send it along tomorrow once her final edits are complete. I have also now completed both of my summer term courses for this year and have received A as a final mark in one of them and, while not formally posted on Solus yet, I believe a 97% in the second course. I am trying very hard to rebuild my life for the well-being of myself and my children, it is not an easy road but I am committed to working hard and accessing support as needed.
Thanks again for taking the time to read through this information, I am hopeful that this provides you with the additional information needed and I will send the letter along some time tomorrow.
Dorothy Evans
Student Number: 3752528