Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: I am submitting this appeal to waive the 21-day deadline in order to submit an appeal to drop and receive credit standing for courses in my fourth and fifth year at Queen's. The grades I received in these classes are not a true representation of my academic ability and I am asking for the opportunity to demonstrate such. Unfortunately, I was unable to submit this appeal 21 days following graduation because my time and energy were centred around the management of my mental health. The documentation sent to asc.appeals@queensu.ca will demonstrate the progression of my extenuating circumstances.

In the Fall of 2018 and the first semester of my last year at Queen's, I suffered psychologically due to mental health issues and new medications. My depression was at an all-time high and was worsening at an unmanageable pace so my family physician, Dr. Grell, prescribed me with an antidepressant called Escitalopram. A few weeks later at a follow up, Dr. Grell diagnosed me with ADHD and prescribed 27mg of Concerta per day. Before these two prescriptions, I had never been medicated before and was thus not aware of how crippling the repercussions can be if the medication is not right for you. Throughout the following weeks, I could not feel the Concerta and the Escitalopram made my depression more apparent as it put me to sleep for more than 13 hours per day. At my next check up, I was told that it takes 4-6 weeks for one's body to process these medications and was therefore instructed to endure the medications side effects for a total of six weeks. In December and in the middle of exam season, Dr. Grell increased my Concerta prescription from 27mg per day to 54mg per day and escalated the severity of my treatment by referring me to Dr. Anna Abadir, a psychiatrist who worked at Toronto General and Western hospital.

Over the winter break and into 2019, I had two psychiatric assessments with Dr. Abadir. After the second, she discontinued my prescription for Escitalopram and prescribed 150mg of a new anti-depressant, Bupropion. In addition, I was required to see her for weekly in-person psychological and pharmacological treatment; this meant commuting back and forth from Kingston to Toronto every week for my last semester at Queen's. At the end of January, I fell down a flight of stairs and suffered from a concussion that negatively impacted my mental health and progress being made with Dr. Abadir. In March, I sought help from the Queen's Accessibility department because my learning disability and psychiatry appointments had pushed my academic obligations to the side. I met with advisors, Gail and Monique, on a bi-weekly basis, who taught me some techniques that help students with ADHD. However, the courses were unsalvageable due to some extenuating circumstances mentioned here, but others that will be further explained in a second appeal. In conclusion, I failed to graduate in my fourth year.

In the fall of 2019, I was enrolled in online courses at Queen's and I continued to see Dr. Abadir for psychiatric and pharmacological treatment on a bi-weekly basis. In September, she doubled the dose of my anti-depressant from 150mg to 300mg per day and in the winter of 2020, she increased my Concerta from 54mg to 72mg per day.

As of January 2022, I have taken the same dose of the same medications (72mg of Concerta and 300mg of Bupropion) every day, for two years. With consistent treatment, Dr. Abadir has helped me achieve control and regulation over my mental health and I continue to practice existing and new strategies that allow me to live harmoniously with my diagnoses.

Had I known that these extenuating circumstances were only going to persist, escalate, and impair me to the degree that they did - I would have approached my final year at Queen's much differently. In hindsight, I can confidently say that I would have taken my fourth year off school and dedicated all my focus towards improving and learning how to regulate my mental health with the help of professionals such as Dr. Abadir. It is not surprising that my academic performance was negatively impacted during a time when I unknowingly struggled with ADHD and a dopamine deficiency, endured debilitating mental and physical repercussions from constantly changing medications, commuted to and from Toronto on a weekly basis, and tried to develop the skills required to combat all of the above.

I hope that this appeal and its supporting documentation have demonstrated the urgency placed on my mental health recovery and thus why I was unable to appeal within 21 days of graduation. My improvement over the past two years and my present state of mind have reinforced the notion that I was not capable of being in school during that time and I deeply regret that I did not take time off. I would really appreciate the opportunity to explain my circumstances and their negative impacts in more detail so that I can rightfully appeal to drop and achieve credit standings in courses that are simply an inaccurate representation of my academic abilities.

Thank you so much for your time,
Caleigh Castiglione