📚 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.