Sep 15th, 2007, 04:22 AM
That which is going on in my life
Most of you who matter probably know about my bouts in years past with insanity, wherein I posed serious danger to myself and another. The fallout was that I was placed on medical leave of absence from the University of Chicago for two years on the grounds that I do well for one year at a different institution. I tried for a year at Indiana University, but medication problems kept me from doing very well at all. I got the medications fixed, but it was much too late to salvage my grades for that year. So, I took a year off then began summer studies.
In this time, I had been more than transparent about the dark aspects of my past with the strategy in mind that I couldn’t be faulted for hiding anything from anyone. I put up YouTube videos talking about it, I put my autobiography online, et cetera. Anyone who knew my name could Google it and learn every aspect of my life to now.
Out of two summer classes I took, I would talk to one of the teachers (who doesn’t yet have her PhD, she’s a grad student at the university) for general guidance with grad school ideas. I once asked if she knew of any faculty that would be able or interested in reading a book (I didn’t even say it was the one I wrote), so she Googled me at length and read my autobiography. I only ascertained this by tracing IP numbers to the IU server. This was followed by visits from the university’s police department to my webpage, then silence. In this time I had to submit an application for a formal admittance into the University Division, as I had to that point been an unclassified student and had to gain admission to return after a year of paltry performance. Summer studies are classified differently, so I was able to take those with no formal admittance.
Three months passed, including the completion of two summer classes. Then I was summoned to an appointment with the interim provost of IU, and he informed me that their understanding of what I had done in 2005 included injurious behavior, contrary to my affirmation on the application that I had never engaged in such activity. They said I was to be permanently denied matriculation on these grounds. When my parents played phone tag with a handful of people that made this decision, it was revealed that they based this entirely on a complaint leveled by the aforementioned teacher. They added that she felt she was in danger just for knowing me.
What I wonder is, how the hell could this not be construed as open discrimination against mental illness? I have never committed a felony nor had any convictions of any degree leveled against me. Yes, with the VT incident they have a right to be paranoid, but that doesn’t write them a blank check to fuck over whomever they want. I’ve been talking with the local Mental Health America office to see what they can do for me, but outlets WITHIN the university have told me that my best option is to sue them.
If assholes could fly, this school would be fucking O’Hare.
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