Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: My name is Kassidy Austin and I am in my third year at Queen's University doing my undergraduate degree in Arts. I am writing this appeal to drop the course SOCY363 due to extenuating circumstances with my mental health as well as physical health and trauma that I have experienced over the past few months starting in the beginning of October up until a week and a half ago. I have been dealing with a high conflict high stress situation with my parent's divorce since the end of September. I was put in the middle of the divorce that became extremely high drama leaving me to become the caretaker to my mother who is very ill with Lyme disease, ultimately leaving me overwhelmed, drained, and exhausted. This directly impacted my school work and made it impossible to focus, extremely anxious, and emotionally dysregulated. Along with my family stressors causing my anxiety and depression to peak, the boy I was dating also became verbally, emotionally, and physically abusive to me after dating for a few months beginning in October and persisted until two weeks ago leaving me horribly traumatized, emotionally unstable, depressed, and beyond anxious. My school work and grades have suffered because of this and I have met with my therapist who knows of my situation as well as Queen's academic advisor, and counselling services whom all agree that I need to drop this course in order to get rid of another stressor, as well as put in place academic accommodations moving forward, or even possibly take time off school to deal with my anxiety, depression, and trauma. I love school and I love Queen's it has been a great home to me and I want to excel in every aspect of school both educationally and socially and because of my current state of mental health I am not able to do that. The events that have happened in the past few months have directly impacted my ability to perform at school to the best of my ability and I would really appreciate the chance to do so when I am of sound mind and health.
Thank you for your consideration,
Kassidy Austin