I probably will anyways, but okay.
Today I talk about what all this has done to me...
There's obvious damage to my personal and professional reputation, not to mention the mental anguish and pain that's caused me, in suffering. Of course, there's also the financial loss of not having a fantastic co-op opportunity.
I had a co-op that would have paid very reasonably, 8 month co op, papers signed, I just had to show up to work. When the suspension happened and they found out about it they "retracted their offer of employment".
I found myself unemployed and incapable of attending school or getting any type of financial compensation from anyone, within a few days of being very well off in terms of money.
I scrambled, found a minimum wage part time job that's been okay at covering the bills for now.
This controversy also put a strain on a long-term relationship I had, which has since ended. So there's that. additionally, most of my friends are students who hang out at the college, so I don't get to see them anymore. and there's my current position.
I tried communicating with my Students union about flaws I noticed between the "Student behavior policies and procedure" on the "know your rights" page from Mohawk's website... and my student's union basically told me they were not allowed to talk to me. Instead, I have to deal with the head of security, who doesn't seem at all interested in getting information for me from anyone, despite being pestered by me.
It's a sad day when even your union (in this case student) won't talk to you after an immoral act has occurred.
Between the problems with not having broken any policies in the first place, coupled with the disregard of proper procedure during the appeal, not to mention possible corruption of the entire process, I can't put faith in the system at Mohawk any further. Add all that to the fact that, currently, they're essentially ignoring all my requests for information or responses to the allegations that they didn't follow correct procedure for the appeal, and you end up with a mess that it would take someone like the President of the College's interference to straighten out; but I'm not allowed to talk to him. I have to talk to the head of security, and get nowhere.
I'm sorry if I'm ranting a little, the situation has been ongoing for so long that I'm a little miffed about being ignored by everyone.
Throughout all of this, I have noticed a trend of Mohawk's administration, more or less, playing "fast and loose" with their own rules and regulations. Here's some specific examples:
During the initial suspension, procedures dictated in the student behavior policy say that there should be almost a court-like judicial system, where outside consultants, teachers, etc, need to be brought in on an issue and consulted for their input. This never occurred. of course, they say in that policy that sometimes they can accelerate certain proceedings, etc etc. The reasoning I was led to understand was, that since I was not being punished primarily under the student behavior policy, they were not obligated to follow the procedures outlined in the policy, despite the policy being cited on my initial suspension as one that was broken.
During the initial suspension, procedures dictated in the student behavior policy say that there should be almost a court-like judicial system, where outside consultants, teachers, etc, need to be brought in on an issue and consulted for their input. This never occurred. of course, they say in that policy that sometimes they can accelerate certain proceedings, etc etc. The reasoning I was led to understand was, that since I was not being punished primarily under the student behavior policy, they were not obligated to follow the procedures outlined in the policy, despite the policy being cited on my initial suspension as one that was broken.
After the appeal request, according to the procedure for appeals, as outlined in the student behavior policy and procedure, there MUST be written notice of the appeal committee hearing given to all parties. I never received such a notice, neither before, nor after the hearing.
After the appeal hearing, according to the procedure for appeals as outlined in the student behavior policy and procedure, I was to be informed, in writing, of the comittee's decision, within five (5) (business) days, as to what the outcome of the hearing was. the hearing was on December 22nd, the written notice was dated January 15th.
I was given excuses, that since my appeal request was issued the friday before the hearing (Dec. 18th), and they 'got me in on such short notice', that they didn't have time to issue a written notice of the appeal hearing. They only got me in on such short notice, because a fellow student of mine, suspended on the same trumped up charge, had filed for his appeal almost a week prior to me, and they assigned him that date. While the committee was assembled, they heard two (mine and his) rather than just one (his) hearing. (both had the same verdict, but his initial suspension was 8months, so there was no change for him)
The other excuse I was given was that, I was given a call on December 24th (yes, Christmas eve), to inform me of the outcome of the committee's meeting, and that they understood that was sufficient, and therefore didn't require a timely response in writing of the outcome.
of course, these are excuses, and have no basis in reality, except that the actions depicted in them are true. the fact that these actions exempt the college from obeying their own policies is ludicrous, and should be met with hostile reactions.
apparently though, my actions were 'close enough' to hacking for everyone to charge me with it, even though the letter of the law (the part that matters) doesn't fit. Again, fast and loose, so none of this really matters, right?
I even emailed the ministry of training, colleges and universities, a division of the ministry of education (I even selected the specific department that dealt with technical schools or whatever), to say, please contact me, because Mohawk college is not following their own policies and I believe it's totally wrong. They refuse to recognize a problem, nor even discuss it with me, I'm hoping you can make them listen... blah blah... that's more or less it, but in different wordings, etc.
I didn't even get a response from the ministry, despite telling them I had proof.
This is why I'm writing this blog. Honestly, if something like this could happen to me, it could happen to anyone. I need to let people know that there's corruption in this school and I'm doing it one of few ways I know how. I made it into a blog, rather than just an article, because I intend to constantly follow up on stories and student's reports at the school, trying to uncover the truth to all this. I'm sure when the administration at Mohawk sees all this, they'll have a response and I want to inform the public of how they're treating me, so the public can know and make informed decisions about whether or not they actually want to attend this school.
I hope it helps. truly.
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