[Evis]

Hi,

Has anyone here been put on forced medical leave by their school?

I moved to a new city this past fall and two weeks into semester I was told to leave school (I was given 24 hours notice to vacate my dorm) and I'm now on forced medical leave until next fall.

When the school found out about my 'issues' they saw me as a risk, treated me as a liability to the school and spared no time in getting me off their premises (my school has a reputation for doing this to students with mental health issues).

It has just left me very isolated, socially, and I am wondering how I'll get through the next 8 months

[Perna]

Almost all colleges have it now:

http://shs.wustl.edu/mloa.htm

http://www.conncoll.edu/campuslife/8972.htm

http://www.wellesley.edu/ClassDeans/leaves.html

I would look into applying to an online college, looking at courses and degrees you can take from home? http://www.onlinecolleges.net/

[nannypat]

I didn't know anything about this. Thank you. I guess if they had it back when I was in college, I would have been sent home, but I made it through.

[Evis]

Thanks for that info Perna. I guess I'm starting to realize after it all happened that a lot of colleges over here have these types of policies in place.

What gets me is the way in which they handled my case - I was in hospital when my school phoned me to tell me that I was been kicked out of school and my dorm and that I wasn't allowed on school premises, so on the day I was discharged from hospital I literally had nowhere to go. I was escorted to my dorm room to collect me belongings and then walked out onto the street and that was it. I was left on my own and told not to come back until next fall when my medical leave is up.

I'm not the only student who has been treated like this - the college I go to is notorious for treating students as liabilities to be gotten rid of, rather than students who need to be helped, students who are part of the college community.

[Perna]

It is unfortunate in this day and age that there aren't a few more ways to help people with continuity in their lives; we have computers that do lots of stuff, cell phones that do stuff on the go, I got a Roku for Christmas to have streaming video on my TV, etc. but work has to make a profit so if we are not able to work, they cannot afford us and schools are in the business of teaching, so if we're having a problem with the learning at the moment, out we go.

I'm glad you found somewhere to stay, Elvis and hope you are healing well. I would look into online schooling; I did that for my second degree, it really is nice not to have to get dressed up and show up at a certain time, etc. takes some of the stress out of it, it's more like an online community, like here; I did really well with it because of here, actually; learning and practicing how to communicate on PC helped me with the classwork and dealing with the other students.