Petition Letter
I am appealing my SOCY 122 a late drop of the course. I believe that my extenuating circumstance affected my academic performance towards SOCY 122. In September I was sexually assaulted by a housemate, and I struggled emotionally dealing with the event, which lead to a poor academic performance in all my subjects in addition, I was not and currently am not speaking or in contact with my family and felt like I had no support systems to help me deal with the event, and the challenges of post-secondary education. Due to having no contact with my biological family, I was not able to afford the cost of living and tuition so I had to work 40 hours a week on top of my academic course load. I did not know that Queen's offered support in these areas, and only found out about the numerous resources in late March. During my Winter semester, I had to start working through my trauma which led to being unable to focus on my academics and put an importance on my mental health. Due to the event in September, I did not submit one of my main assignments for the Fall meaning that by Winter semester I already had a Failing grade. Once I was able to seek help in March, I had to deal with the psychological trauma again. I had numerous meetings with different personal counselors and was unable to put my best effort into my classes. I missed the deadline of an annotated bibliography, and I received an F on my final paper. I found it hard to focus on my academics and struggled with dealing with my emotions in addition to my coursework. I will continue to seek help through the schools resources.