Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To Whom It May Concern:

I am writing with the intent to receive a CR and Dropped standing in several of my second year courses. My name is Erika Campbell and currently a third year Life Sciences student. I am requesting the appeal deadline to be waived due to mental health circumstances that prevented me from submitting my appeal. In my first year of university, I studied at the Bader International Study Centre (BISC), in the United Kingdom. During the first three months I was actively involved with in the BISC community and met many wonderful people. We were isolated therefore we leaned on each other and develop strong trusting relationships. On December 10, 2015, an upper year undergraduate Queen¿¿s University student, that I trusted, sexually assaulted me. In the days following the assaulted I isolated myself and focused on exams and ignored my emotions. I was in total denial of what happened and if I did not tell anyone it wouldn¿¿t be true. Silence was the mode of operation for me.

I returned to the BISC in January 2016, ready to begin term two of my first year. I still had yet to speak about the sexual assault incident to my parent or friends. The fear of seeing the individual that assaulted me was over as he returned to Queen¿¿s Main Campus in Kingston. In late February of 2016, I auditioned for a role in the BISC¿¿s Vagina Monologs Show. I was assigned a monolog about being sexually assaulted that discussed the theme of slut shaming. Upon reading the monolog aloud I began to cry because I was sexually assaulted and I was too afraid to tell anyone. I fear being classified as a ¿¿slut¿. Another student promptly advised me to speak with a Student Life Coordinator (SLC) at the Castle. I began sharing the most devastating experience in my life with two Student Life Managers. The SLC managers were very supportive and arranged counseling session. I truly thank these two women for helping me to start the process of healing myself. For the remainder of the semester I saw the counselor on a regular bases. When the time came to leave and go home I feared leaving my relationship with my counselor, she had helped me tremendously. Upon returning home to Canada, my parents arranged for me to see a counselor. Once again I had to start at the beginning and felt I had taken 20 steps back. I decided to put counseling on hold after 2 months and would continue with a therapist in Kingston upon return in September.

I was extremely keen to begin classes on Queen¿¿s Main Campus. I was accepted into my program of choice, Life Science, and I applied and successful obtained a position on the Jack.org Queen¿¿s Chapter. I was thrilled, until the day I saw the individual that sexually assaulted me on campus. It was during orientation week at Queen¿¿s in the Park. The feelings of fear, frozen, out of body came flooding back to me in an instant. I wanted to run but my body couldn¿¿t move. My eyes filled with tears and my throat tightened. I began to panic in fear he would violate me again. In my counseling sessions we never discussed what would happen when I returned to Main Campus and the potential of seeing him again.

The student that assaulted me began to message my close friends asking for my address, following them to my residence (Smith House) and asking them to let him in so he could talk to me. He began to show up at every Jack.org event and grabbed me, asking what I have said to people and ensuring that we are ¿¿friends¿. His behaviour cause significant fear for my safety and protection and this greatly affected my mental health. I was frightened to leave the security of my room in Smith House. I was unable to keep up with my academic work because I was having regular panic attacks. I was unsure how to cope and fearful to reach out for help in the event he would find out that I had disclosed the sexual assault. My fear prevented me from sleeping, eating and obtaining therapy for my mental health. He had taken so much away from me, my dignity, trust, self-esteem, self worth to name a few and I fought daily not to quit and let him take away my academic future too. By not being able to attend classes and maintain my overall health, my academic performance suffered greatly.

I am requesting alter my transcript for two reasons. Firstly, my poor performance in second year of university prevents me from pursuing my academic goals, as well as it remains to be a reminder of how I allowed the events that took place on December 10, 2015, to control my thoughts, feelings, essentially my life. Secondly, I was unable to file the appeal on time for three reasons. My mental health prevented me from doing nothing more that one day at a time and I was only concerned with being able to build the courage to leave my dorm room to attend classes and eat in the cafeteria where he ate as well. Additionally, I was fearful of sharing my story with academic administrators because I was nervous he would be informed of my allegations of sexual assault. Finally, retelling this story is painful. I feel like I am being assaulted all over again. When I met with an academic advisor this semester to explore my appeal options I shared the details of the incident, tears flowed once again. It is extremely difficult for me to be so vulnerable when sharing the details and then to find the strength to walk out into the world without fear.

Currently, my grades have improved tremendously. I am seeing a counselor regularly to help me cope with my panic attacks and rebuild my self worth. One significant change is, he graduated and is no longer a student at Queen¿¿s University. I am exploring and pushing myself to trust my instincts once again and stop blaming myself for allowing this violent act to occur. I will not allow him to take one more thing from me and will find the strength to fix myself and believe I have no shame. I have begun a club on campus to promote sexual consent education, called Consensual Humans. I am also a co-lead for Jack.org Queens University Chapter. I am actively attending therapy and have strength to pursue additional community supports ensuring my safety.


I would like to thank you in advance for reviewing my academic appeal.

Sincerely,

Erika Campbell
(10177691)