Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: This is regarding appeals 9620 and 9666. I would like these decisions to be reviewed again as I believe they are unfair regarding the circumstances. I have pasted both of my appeal letters from these two previous appeals and I will attach the related documentation as well.

First appeal letter:
To the Associate Dean (Academic),

I am appealing to extend my IN grade for IDIS 373 (Winter, 2022), and to drop WRIT 125 (Winter, 2022). I would like to state that I was completing IN courses in the summer after my graduation, and due to my circumstances, I had not anticipated not be able to complete them and needing to appeal within the 21-day limit following my graduation, and thus I would like to kindly request that you waive ruling 3.2.1 and allow me to extend my IN for IDIS 373 and drop WRIT 125. I have reached out to the IDIS 373 professor and can confirm that she supports my appeal.

I would like to start by explaining my circumstances from the beginning. I apologize in advance for the length of this letter, but I ask that you do read all of it, as all of the details are critical. School is very important to me, and I have always strived to do very well and become a successful person. I had been doing quite well since second year as I got more accustomed to university life, although the stress and pressure I feel due to the high expectations I have for myself and those my family has for me leads to periods of severe anxiety and stress when school gets busy. I have been able to manage my time well enough to get by despite all of this, until September 2021, the beginning of my fourth year, in which I was hit by a car on highway 15 while riding my bike and suffered from a severe concussion. This accident was my first ever concussion, but it was very serious as I was unconscious for 10 minutes and woke up in the ambulance, and thus I was told to take time off from school to rest and recover. I also went to physiotherapy for my neck injury and for my eyes as I was unable to focus on words or screens since the concussion happened. My symptoms persisted and thus I had to see my family doctor and receive accommodations for school. This accident made me fall behind in my fourth year which resulted in a lot of stress and anxiety as it was my last year. After half of the semester had gone by, I had previous plans to go to Barcelona with my family during reading week. I did not want to miss this because of my concussion, so I went anyways. On one of the last days, I went on a bike ride with my brother, which involved a lot of hills. Over time, the uphill riding made my symptoms flare up and I felt very lightheaded. On the way down a hill, I hit a pothole and flew off the bike and slid down the road. I injured my face, and the whole left side of my body, including my hand. I was not wearing a helmet as this was supposed to be a recreational ride, so the impact on my head without a helmet made my already existing concussion much worse. After this accident, my recovery progress went back to zero and I suffered from the symptoms for a long time. I also had to recover from the injuries to my face, arm, and hand.

By March I was feeling somewhat better although I would still feel very lightheaded and develop a headache when doing exercise or moving around a lot. In early March I went skiing and was quite careful although I had not thought about the impact of repetitive head injuries within the span of a few months. While skiing, I crashed into a snowbank and the impact on my head perturbed my existing concussion symptoms. Since this was the final semester of my undergraduate degree, this led to a lot of stress as I was unable to focus and do work as efficiently as I usually do due to my concussion symptoms. I found myself feeling less and less worthy of being in university amongst all of my peers who appeared to have been doing much better than me. I let myself fall into negative thoughts like this and blamed myself for the concussion symptoms that made it so difficult for me to focus and get work done. This led to a decline in my mental health over time. Later in the semester, I requested IN grades for WRIT 125 and IDIS 373 as these courses were not mandatory for my degree, so I was hoping to be able to finish them in the summer after graduation. I also was behind in CRSS 854, a mandatory course for my degree (graduate course as I was planning to do the combined BSc/MSc). My professor was very understanding of my situation and allowed me to complete the coursework throughout May and the beginning of June, and he was able to get my final mark submitted in time for graduation. During May and June I was also working two jobs; at a pharmacy and as a substitute teacher at a high school in order to support myself financially. Therefore, I had limited free time and was not often capable of focusing long enough to be productive, as my busy work schedule made my headaches worse. Therefore, throughout May and June I had two jobs and was working towards finishing 3 incomplete courses. This level of stress around the time of my graduation at the end of June made my condition worse. Because of the delay in completing my final required course (BMED 854), I was not looking forward to my graduation, as I felt like a fraud and as though I did not deserve a degree as much as my peers who were capable of staying on top of their responsibilities and getting everything done in time. I really beat myself up over this for the entire summer, to the point where I felt suicidal. Looking back on this, it is extremely unfortunate how these events impacted my life to the point where I did not even feel deserving of attending my own convocation. I was in a very dark place mentally for the rest of the summer, there were days where I felt immobilized by my emotions and stresses to the point where I could not be a functioning part of society. Because of these intense feelings soon after my convocation in June I reached out to my family doctor to seek mental health support. I filled out forms regarding my mental state and then after a few weeks (in July) I had a consultation with a mental health specialist to see what kind of treatment/therapy I should look into. They then said they would follow up with more information regarding therapy, but unfortunately after a few weeks I had not heard back. I called the office again in August and this is when I spoke to a Nurse Practitioner (because my family doctor was on vacation) and she reviewed all of my information and asked me many questions before diagnosing me with depression and prescribing medication (Aug 25). This is when I began taking antidepressant medication and hoped to finally improve my life. I also reached out to Student Wellness Services and begun seeing a counsellor, as I was no longer going to be in my hometown as school was starting soon, so I decided to find support at Queen??s. Every day of the summer up until this point I tried to get my assignments done for my IN courses but I was physically incapable of focusing or concentrating on work for more than a short period of time due to both my concussion symptoms as well as my depression and anxiety, which is also known to diminish ones ability to focus and remember things. Throughout summer I was hoping that I would feel better as time went on and therefore still aimed to finish the courses by the end of August, which is why I was unable to appeal within 21 days of my graduation.

I have been on medication since August 25th and have been regularly seeing a counsellor since August as well. I have been feeling better with my academics in my new Master??s program, although the only thing causing me lingering stress and anxiety is the state of these IN courses. I have been feeling extreme anxiety recently as though I am having an identity crisis thinking about what I would do with my life if these courses remained as Fs on my transcript, as the only plans I have for my future involve further education in professional school, either pharmacy, medicine, or law. I have a keen interest in all 3 of these fields, but I am worried now that I will have to forget all about these goals of mine because of the impact that my concussion and my depression have had on my transcript. I would like to reassure you that I am working as hard as I can to better myself, take care of my mental health, as well as my concussion symptoms. I will be getting trigger point injections in my neck to treat the headaches I get from the concussion, and I am continuing to take my medication and seek counselling. Finally, I have already spoken to the IDIS 373 professor, and we had agreed that I will complete the coursework by the end of fall reading week if this appeal gets accepted. I have already gotten much more of the work for this course completed since this semester started.
I hope that the impact that this dark part of my life has had will not result in a permanent influence on the course of my entire future. Thank you for reading my letter and thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,
Leila Tibouti

Second Appeal Letter:
This is regarding appeal 9620. I believe there was a misunderstanding with my previous appeal. My response email stated that ??there were no extenuating circumstances presented that prevented you from appealing within the timeline?. I would like to clarify that I did not claim to be unable to appeal within the timeline, I emphasized that I chose not to appeal within the timeline. This is a unique situation because I was completing IN courses after graduation, and during the 21-day period, I did not feel the need to submit an appeal. I had the goal of completing my courses by the end of the summer term. After the 21-day period ended in mid-July, I still had one month and a half to complete my courses, but my mental health was quickly declining. I began going to therapy and taking antidepressants in August, after reaching out for help in July and waiting to be connected with support. But by August, it was too late; the summer had passed me by and I suffered greatly every single day with my depression, anxiety, and concussion symptoms which led to my inability to complete my courses. Therefore, I am appealing because I believe this situation is inequitable and unfair. The period of my life between July and August had been extremely difficult on me both mentally and physically. I was suffering from extreme mental health issues, which had only gotten worse as the summer had gone on. Therefore, the period of time in which I was unable to appeal anymore (as it was past the 21 days) is when I was realizing more and more how difficult it was for me to complete academic work due to my unstable mental health as well as my serious concussion symptoms, which are still present, after experiencing 3 concussions within the span of 6 months, two of them serious enough to require hospitalization. I have also learned from my family doctor that I may be experiencing post-concussion syndrome, which occurs when concussion symptoms persist long after the concussions occurred. As I described in my previous letter, this has been the case for me, as I experience extreme headaches and inability to concentrate on a daily basis. Furthermore, traumatic brain injury is linked to the development of depression and anxiety, which have been debilitating issues in my life.
I would also like to point out the comment in the response email stating that ??since you were able to work, you were not incapacitated?. This claim on its own exhibits the injustice in the system when it comes to invisible disabilities. I worked solely because I have no choice; I pay for my own tuition with the assistance of OSAP. If I had the privilege of choosing not to work, I most definitely would not have worked. As I described, I worked two jobs in May and June, but despite this, I attempted to complete schoolwork during my free time and days off. I had never tried to use work as an extenuating circumstance, because if I had not been experiencing these concussion symptoms and mental health troubles, I would be capable of getting my work done without a problem during the days in which I did not work. I stopped working two jobs after June, although I needed the money, because I was not capable of handling the impact it had on my brain and my doctor recommended working less to take better care of my concussion symptoms. This started in July, where I worked solely as a pharmacy assistant. I find the comment made in the email to be dismissive of the differences between a part time job and academic work. It is much more mentally taxing to look at a computer screen and do research, write essays, and study for exams for hours on end, than it is to count pills and give people their prescriptions. I had never claimed to be physically incapacitated, as then I would not be able to work, I claimed to be mentally incapacitated, which is what made it extremely difficult for me to deal with my mental health declining, my persisting concussion symptoms, as well as two courses. It is unfortunate that people assume that because someone is capable of doing one thing, that they are capable of doing anything else. Work and school are two completely different things which involve completely different levels of mental effort and exhaustion. Unfortunately, people who have not personally experienced debilitating depression, anxiety, or head injury are not able to understand as easily. By this point in the summer, it had already passed the 21-day appeal deadline after my graduation, so I told myself I had to finish these courses by the end of summer. I would not have let this happen due to laziness or procrastination, although that is what people seem to label it as. If I was not experiencing actual extenuating circumstances, I would not have put myself through the trouble of attempting to appeal something after the deadline, I would have gotten the work done to avoid all of this. I have experienced a literal mental block to the point where I was not a functioning part of society outside of my job. This is why it is so important for people to acknowledge the impact of invisible disabilities such as mental illness and head injuries. Now with the stress and anxiety caused by the uncertainty of my entire future due to having two Fs on my transcript which are a result of my mental health issues and head injuries, these symptoms are only becoming more extreme. This is also impacting the progress I have tried so hard to make by taking better care of myself, going to therapy, and taking medication to treat my depression and anxiety in order to aim to be successful academically in the future. I believe it is extremely inequitable to dismiss the experiences of an individual suffering from depression, anxiety, and head injury, simply due to a 21-day rule. No one deserves to have their entire life changed and their ability to achieve their goals taken away due to a rough period in their life that they had no control over. I have spoken to multiple individuals including academic advisors, my QSAS advisor Meg Hall, as well as my counsellor Roger Davidson, who agree that this is unjust and unfair. Although the university has a 21-day regulation, this is a unique situation which requires appropriate consideration. The ethics of a unique situation should be considered to be more important than a single regulation which generalizes everyone??s experiences.