Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Office of the Associate Dean (Academic),

I am writing to request a credit appeal for my PSYC 301 (Fall, 2020) grade.

August 2020 began a string of cyber harassment which caused an immense amount of psychological and physical illness. This harassment began in August of 2020 and continued all the way until December 2020. The online abuse was pervasive, severe, and constant across multiple platforms ?? all personal accounts (email, social media) and afterwards through Queen??s University club platforms (e.g., Queen??s Asian Student Association (QASA) Instagram Page for Marketing, Concurrent Education Student Association (CESA) BISC Representatives Instagram Account, and Forms). Originally, to try to curve the cyber harassment, I had deactivated and ceased the usage of the accounts that were receiving the harassment. However, after trying to manage the extenuating circumstance, the harassment seeped into my Queen??s extracurriculars as noted from earlier (I was involved in QASA as their Marketing Director thus had to manage the social media as my job, and CESA as their BISC Representative).

This abuse caused extreme paranoia, insomnia, depression, anxiety, and PTSD symptoms. The physical and psychological effects impacted my ability to reach out for academic help, my ability to focus without a sense of fear and paranoia, and my ability to perform academically without intensified fear of worthlessness. I not only was able to focus and understand the new material, but I was also both physically and psychologically unable to complete the coursework to the best of my abilities. When I had tried to reach out for help, the deep-set paranoia from the cyber-harassment set in, and the anxiety contributed to a severe fear of social interaction.

To deal with this harassment, I reached out to all Queens?? platforms that were affected due to my participation, explained the situation, isolated myself from them, and further out to Queen??s Human Rights Office, Kingston Police, and Queen??s Student Wellness Services. Through these organizations, I was able to begin the process in filing a police report while seeing a personal counsellor through Queen??s and ultimately transitioning to Empower Me after trying multiple wellness tools (TAO Therapy Assistance Online, Online Psychotherapy). To cope throughout the semester, I had called Good2Talk multiple times after nightmares, panic attacks due to preparing to speak to people or after interacting with people.

The reason why I did not credit appeal PSYC 301 (Fall, 2020) grade earlier was that I simply did not know this was an option. In addition, my extenuating circumstances caused an immense sense of fear, paranoia, and shame that I could not do better as my body physically and psychologically could not function. Thanks to the psychological support I am now receiving through Empower Me, pharmacological support from my medical practitioner from Queen??s, and support from Queen??s Student Accessibility Services I am slowly able to function again.

I believe that this grade does not define me as a student or my abilities, but rather is the remains of my attempts to grasp at what I could during an incredibly difficult time in my life. I thank you for your time and consideration.