“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
Showing posts with label disabled student rights. Show all posts
Showing posts with label disabled student rights. 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.


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