There are some things you should never take people at their word for. Just because your Bro says he can hook you up with a bunch of Vicodin doesn’t mean you should plan a Thursday night in where you get hopped up on pain pills and bourbon, because he might not come through.
That said, if someone tells you their parent passed away, it’s much easier and more polite to believe they are telling the truth, because they probably are. You gotta be a complete sociopath to make up a parent’s death just to get out of something.
But a university in London refused to take a student’s word about her father’s death when she asked to postpone her exams. Fucked up, no? Worse, she says she provided the school with evidence, which they wouldn’t accept.
Saima Haq studies biochemistry at the University of Westminster. Recently, her father passed away unexpectedly, and she asked the school if she could postpone exams she had in March.
She told BuzzFeed, ““A lot of students defer their exams to July so I thought this would be easier.”
Not so. Haq said the school sent her in circles as she tried to figure out what precisely to do and who to appeal to.
“I went through student services, but they told me it’s not the area they deal with. My course rep told me to email my tutor, who’s been unresponsive for two weeks. My course leader was the only person to advise me on the mitigating circumstances process properly.”
When she finally sent her request in, it came back denied.
The reason her request was denied? She didn’t provide the school with the original death certificate, instead sending them a photocopy.
Talk about some bullshit.
The school declined to comment on Haq’s case specifically, but said that its policies were clearly stated.
The University of Westminster told BuzzFeed News that they are sorry for her loss, but have “clear and robust” procedures for student deferral requests, that include the need for “original, independent documentary evidence”.
Call me crazy, but I don’t think you are going to run into a rash of students faking their parents’ deaths to get out of tests if you loosened the restrictions just a bit.
Her tweets about the story have since gone viral. After they did, she says the school reached back out to her, although she’s yet to respond.
Yea, I’d kinda say fuck them, too.
[Via BuzzFeed News]