Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: I am submitting a petition to have the one year deadline waived so my late petition to have the following F graded courses on my transcript changed to a DR. I have indicated in brackets the corresponding terms when the courses were taken.

DEVS 280 (W23), HIST 207 (W23), DEVS 361 (F22), FREN106 (F22), DEVS220 (F22), FILM260 (S22), DEVS 340 (W22), GNDS 215 (W22).

While DEVS 280 and HIST 207 are still currently within the deadline for a petition to late drop, I have been advised by an academic advisor and Barb Lotan (the Sexual Violence Prevention and Response Coordinator) to submit all courses in a single petition.

I wish to express that there were serious extenuating circumstances beyond my control that rendered me unable to submit a petition for the rest of the courses before the deadlines. These circumstances were ongoing and prevented me from acting from the time of the deadline and the time at which this petition is being initiated. I experienced two sexual assaults during my time at Queen’s. These incidents occurred in October 2019, and in November 2020. After the second incident I began experiencing deteriorating mental health due to acute trauma. This led me to fail some courses which I successfully petitioned to drop. In the winter semester of 2021 I participated in group therapy and connected with Barb in the effort of managing the impacts of my experiences, and for some time it was working for me, however in the winter of 2022 I began experiencing increasing deterioration of my mental health due to a post traumatic injury resulting from my experiences. Up to this point I thought I was able to manage my trauma but I could not. I really struggled with this for a long time. I had a much more difficult time understanding what was happening to me during this ongoing issue than I previously had during my experience with acute trauma. I did not understand that I was experiencing chronic trauma which can present itself extremely differently from acute trauma. For about a year and a half, from February 2022 to June of 2023, I felt like there was absolutely no light at the end of the tunnel, and I was entirely unsure how to ask or receive help from anyone. The severity of my circumstances was very serious, and my disconnection was not limited to my academics. It carried over into many of my relationships with friends and even members of my immediate family. I continued to isolate myself completely from everything and everyone around me. I was entirely unable to submit my petitions at this point because I was still mired in the situation. After reaching a point of ‘rock bottom’ my parents helped me get into therapy with Cynthia Di Prospero in June of 2023. In December of 2023 I began receiving treatment from Paula Bell. After participating in talk therapy for nearly a year, and consistently taking prescribed antidepressant medication, I have recently begun EMDR therapy to more effectively treat my post traumatic stress in the last few weeks.

I am currently registered in a BA program and upon completion of the course I am in right now (DEVS 220) I will be able to finish my degree. I am on track to successfully complete this course. I feel very strongly that obtaining a successful appeal of my F graded courses to be changed to DRs on my transcript would not only be an important step for my academic career, but also a big part of my journey healing from these assaults. I feel as if these failures are a reminder of how the actions of other people derailed my life, severely impacted my ability to succeed, and changed the course of my academic career. I know that these failures are not an accurate representation of my engagement with my education and I wish for them to not follow me into the next stage of my life. I also know for a fact that I am a capable, smart, dedicated, strong, and empathetic individual. I have loved my education at Queen’s. I treasure the memories of meeting my very best friends and incredible professors in these classrooms. I am proud of how hard I have worked to confront these problems.

I’d like to quickly note that my diagnosis of ADHD is a confounding factor for the issues I will describe here, and while it was certainly not the cause, the complexities of ADHD in connection with mental illness and trauma are important to know. I have included supporting documentation from Barb Lotan and Paula Bell (my current psychotherapist). My former psychotherapist Cynthia Di Prospero has also communicated to me that she will also put together supporting documentation for my petition to late drop these courses.