Petition Letter
I would like to request an appeal in order to drop CLST201 of the fall 2014 semester. I was diagnosed with PTSD, and Anxiety Disorder during the fall of 2014. Both of these were a result of a sexual assault that happened on the Queens University campus during my first year. Although I have struggled since the assault, the semester of fall 2014 was particularly difficult since I was having anxiety attacks daily, was unable to eat, nightmares restricted my sleep, I lost a lot of weight, I had flashbacks of the incident several times a week and I had no professional support. Having PTSD made it incredibly difficult for me to memorize facts and to concentrate on my schoolwork and readings. This course was all memorization based midterms and exams where as my other courses were relatively all graded strictly on essays. Studying was very difficult since I got flashbacks regularly and had anxiety attacks daily. Memorizing facts was incredibly difficult for me to do despite studying for hours. Even though I managed to learn a few things, once I would get to the exams my anxiety was so bad that writing the exams and midterms triggered anxiety attacks. Leaving my house was already a struggle. Being in the classroom where the CLST 201 lecture took place triggered many of my flashback. During the semester when I was sexually assaulted, I had numerous classes there. I could not stop these triggers from setting off anxiety attacks and flashbacks of the incident, therefore despite my willingness to do well in this course I had a hard time focusing on the lectures itself and studying was nearly impossible. I saw several doctors in the emergence room at KGH and then began my therapy treatments for the anxiety and PTSD after the semester was finished. Due to these extenuating circumstances, I would like to drop CLST 201.