Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To whom it may concern,

My name is Zoe Langbecker, student ID 20264298, and I am writing to request that my grade for German 201 (GRMN 201) be expunged from my 2021 fall semester transcript. I am requesting to have this record expunged due to extenuating circumstances.
The circumstances that lead to my extreme mental health decline involve the death of a family member. My Aunt, Janet Holboke, and I were very close, and she passed away suddenly after starting treatment for stage four lymphoma. She and I were very close, and I felt like she was ripped away from me far too soon. We had just left that August to move to Canada from McMinnville, Oregon and she passed away on October 3rd; until that point nobody had even considered that she may have had cancer until she received a PET scan. I do not have documentation of the PET scan. It was after this event that I withdrew from residence in Adelaide Hall, as I was feeling suicidal. Upon going home, I dropped my Chinese Language 100 language class, and wanted to drop German. However, since I was enrolled specially/manually, I could not manually drop the German course. I emailed Ms. Hosek on outlook and asked her how I could remedy this problem, and we had a back and forth about it. However, I missed an email that had urged me to ask for a late drop. At this point I had withdrawn so far into myself that I was no longer in the habit of checking my emails or submitting any assignments for my other courses. The loss of my Aunt was the most prominent thing in my life at that point, and worsened my depression. It is important to note that I would retake the class if I could- unfortunately, I am currently an online health sciences student, although I am looking to transfer into in person soon. As an online student, I am not allowed to enroll in in-person arts and science courses.
On top of this, my Parkinsonian father, who had been to rehabilitation while my Aunt was in hospice, relapsed into methamphetamine use. I do not have the receipts for his stay, but asked him to write an email concerning the use. It can be taken into account at your discretion. I felt like, as well as losing my Aunt, I was losing my father. Our relationship had been extremely tumultuous over my high school years, and I had hoped that, with time, the relationship would mend. However, his meth habit coupled with his Parkinson's diagnosis made me think, at the time, that he would be dying soon. Everything seemed like it would fall apart. I got scared when my mother would go to work, fearing that she would get in an accident or that something bad would happen. These were my anxieties during the time I was neglecting my courses.
I ended up failing GRMN 201 and CISC 101. This development had crushed me. I resolved to change my major to health sciences in a hasty decision to honor my Aunt and help improve the system that I thought was largely at fault for her death. I have since matured, but have found that I enjoy the classes in this degree program very much. I retook CISC 101 in an effort to better my grade, and did well the second time around. I have resolve to succeed. I have taken many classes since then, and have done well in all of them. I am also looking into a therapist based in Whitby. I am proud of the progress I have made in this past year, and I know that I have the resolve to keep taking classes and succeed academically. I love my major, and intend to pursue a career in the field of health. I fear that the F on my transcript will significantly hinder my ability to get into secondary school. As I am currently unable to retake the course, and my future as an online or in-person health sciences student is uncertain, I am very worried about my ability to remedy this mark.

Thank you for your time,

Zoe Langbecker