Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To Whom It May Concern,

I am requesting a waiver of the appeal deadline due on courses taken in my 2015-2016 school year. I was experiencing a mental health decline due to a mentally abusive relationship.
I attended the BISC for my first year of studies. I began a relationship with a peer and it became very serious quite quickly. We signed a lease for a house in Kingston and moved in together in the summer of 2015 when we returned from our year abroad. He became very controlling of my life from then on. If I didn¿¿t come home within half an hour of being done work or a class, he would call me relentlessly until I came home or as I regularly forgot my keys, he would lock me out of the house only letting me back in when I had apologized to him profusely. If I had plans with friends, he would sometimes contact them directly to say I had too much going on and that they were a distraction to me. After which my friends would cancel the plans without giving me a reason. Once I was the legal drinking age, if I would buy alcohol to have with friends, he would dump it all down the drain while I was in class because he didn¿¿t want me to drink without his supervision and only as much as he deemed reasonable. He went onto my social media accounts and deleted or blocked any males he didn¿¿t know or approve of me having contact with, including friends that I had had since my childhood. In the summer after the second year, he was driving me to my mother¿¿s surprise 50th birthday in my home town. On the way he decided that I wasn¿¿t grateful enough for him taking the time to drive me there and pulled off the highway to a gas station and told me to get out, he drove away and only coming back 20 minutes later and letting me back in once I had apologized to him for the inconvenience. ¿¿
Over the two years we were together, these types of controlling behaviours were the norm. He made me believe that he was the only person looking out for my best interests. I spoke to a peer counsellor once about my mental health who suggested that finding a new living situation might be beneficial, and my partner convinced me that they were not a good influence in my life. I was alienated from my family and friends and felt that I didn¿¿t have anyone to reach out to for help. My mental health deteriorated over this time and I could barely pull myself to class and felt extremely suicidal but didn¿¿t feel I had anyone to reach out to. My mind was extremely cloudy and although I tried hard, I just couldn¿¿t find success in my courses. I attempted to end my relationship many times but I was unable to successfully.

In secret, I did seek help from Queen¿¿s Student Wellness services, meeting with a counsellor and then meeting with a Cognitive Behavioral Therapist. From there I came up with a clear idea of what I wanted to do in life and that the situation I was in was a hindrance to that. After meeting for many sessions through the summer, I was still experiencing intense panic attacks every time I tried to focus on school work and was still stuck in a physiologically disabling relationship, I decided to take a break from school and a breath from the complete mess that my life had become. I moved away to gain physical distance and was finally able to leave my relationship.
I have taken such a long time to submit my appeal because it has been an extremely difficult process to look back on and document. In the past two years, I have processed my trauma from the relationship by attending a support group in London. At the advice of a counsellor, I waited to take the next steps in resolving my academic standing until I was able to centre myself in life outside of my education, partially by removing the stressor that school had been. Losing my autonomy had detrimental effects on my ability to think clearly in all aspects of my life. I still have anxiety when reflecting, but have sought counselling to help through the process of re-entering education. I wanted to wait and make sure that I am emotionally and physically ready to commit my energy completely to my education. I understand how important getting my degree is to achieve the goals that I have for myself in life. I have created a support system for myself at home to find success in the new school year and am forward to moving forward as a strong student. I hope that you will approve my appeal so that I can work toward this goal with my confidence gained in my hiatus.

Thank you so much,
Noelle Carroll