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