“Though the Witch knew the Deep Magic, there is a magic deeper still which she did not know. Her knowledge goes back only to the dawn of time. But if she could have looked a little further back… she would have known that when a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor’s stead, the Table would crack and Death itself would start working backward.” - Aslan, C.S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

Recently Tried in the Court of Public Opinion

Showing posts with label DRC failure. Show all posts
Showing posts with label DRC failure. Show all posts

This Isn’t Academic Failure. It’s Institutional Gaslighting

 📚 SWANK Dispatch: You Let Me Take a Final While Sick, Sleep-Deprived, and Parenting Four Kids

🗓️ 4 July 2021

Filed Under: academic discrimination, disabled student barriers, medical amnesty refusal, DRC complaint, FIU GPA retaliation, assignment inflexibility, instructor misconduct, student mother rights, prednisone suppression, exam scheduling abuse

“You let my 4-year-old run around during a 4-hour calculus final
while I was on steroids,
with no warning there’d be other students present,
and called it education.”
— A Mother with a Master's Degree, Repeating Calculus Because of Ableism

This devastating disability rights statement, written by Noelle Bonneannée, was submitted to Stephen Loynaz at Florida International University’s Disability Resource Center (DRC) in an attempt to address the institutional sabotage of her academic performance in a calculus class—despite official accommodations.

🧠 I. Diagnoses and Accommodations Ignored

  • Officially approved accommodations included:

    • Disability-related absences

    • Assignment extensions

    • Double time on exams

    • Minimal distraction room

  • None of these were respected when it counted:

    • The instructor missed her scheduled exam

    • Then forced her to take the final exam before her third exam

    • While she was on prednisone, sick, and caring for children alone

💣 II. The Institutional Violations

  • Used grades from 2007–08 to place her on probation in 2021, despite her bachelor's and master's degrees earned since

  • Instructor insisted on inflexible exam times, despite being fully aware of her chronic illness, asthma, and active flare-ups

  • Final was administered during her daughter’s waking hours, breaching her minimal distraction accommodation

  • She rearranged her children’s sleep cycles to fit the university's demands

  • Instructor gave no prior notice of other students being present

  • She was rushed to upload the exam three separate times, resulting in unnecessary errors

🧾 III. What She Requested

  • A retroactive course withdrawal for Summer A Calculus (50680 MAC 2312 RVAA)

  • Acknowledgement that this failure was not academic, but institutional and medical

  • Greater DRC advocacy to ensure accommodations are enforceable, not symbolic

👩‍👧 IV. When You Parent and Study While Ill

This is what access looks like for disabled mothers:

  • Studying at midnight during steroid crashes

  • Taking finals with toddlers awake

  • Begging for accommodations you’ve already been granted

  • Watching GPA penalties erase your degrees

SWANK Summary:

She didn't fail Calculus.
FIU failed her.
And DRC?
They documented it.


No comments:

The Policy Was Real. The Access Was Fiction.


⟡ You Gave Me Accommodations. Then Punished Me for Using Them. ⟡

Filed: 4 July 2021
Reference: SWANK/FIU/2021-PETITION-ACCESS
📎 Download PDF — 2021-07-04_SWANK_FIU_DRC_AcademicPetition_DisabilityBarrier_MaternalAccessDenied.pdf

I. An Academic Petition, or: A Forensic Analysis of Procedural Betrayal

This document was filed to Florida International University (FIU) in response to one of academia’s most dishonest rituals: offering support, then punishing the student for accepting it.

It outlines a sequence of events in which:

  • Approved medical accommodations were ignored

  • Disability adjustments were erased mid-semester

  • Maternal obligations were treated as non-compliance

  • And illness was framed not as a limitation — but as a failure of character

This is not a request for help.
It is an autopsy of an institution that handed over crutches and then shattered your knees.

II. What the Petition Reveals

  • DRC adjustments granted — but not enforced

  • Professors scheduling assessments in conflict with disability protocol

  • Academic gaslighting reframed as “rigour”

  • A system incapable of honouring what it authorises

  • A mother forced to choose between protection and participation

The barrier wasn’t academic. It was administratively engineered.

III. Why SWANK Filed It

Because universities polish their inclusion policies, then weaponise procedure the moment you invoke them.
Because compliance is used to prove you’re undeserving.
Because no student should need a petition to remind the institution of what it already agreed to.

Let the record show:

  • You asked for help through every proper channel

  • You were ignored

  • You followed every rule

  • They punished your cooperation

This petition was filed not for accommodation — but for legal posterity.

IV. SWANK’s Position

We do not believe “academic rigour” justifies procedural harm.
We do not accept that deadlines trump diagnosis.
We do not accept “You didn’t say it the right way” as a reason to deny access.

Let the record show:

The institution wrote the policy.
You followed it.
And they revoked it the moment you depended on it.

This isn’t a petition.
This is documented pedagogical misconduct — with timestamps.




No comments: