Saturday, August 16, 2008

'Tis Ranting Time

This post will irritate a few people. I am aware of it, but it must be said. What I say in here is thought by many and spoken by few. I, however, am in an excellent vantage point to commentate on this.

There are 2 girls at uni who get special treatment on assignments. One girl is disabled and the other is depressed. When the disabled girl gets an assignment, she does her hardest to do the assignments and hand them in on time. She warns the lecturers ahead of time if the assignment is especially difficult and hands in very high quality work. The other girl says she's depressed and has financial difficulties. She also says her mother beat her and that she was thrown out of home to suffer on her own. She says to every lecturer that she needs the special allowance on every assignment and gets into a temper when she doesn't get it. What gets me though, and the reason why I care is that she's saying she's depressed when she's really not.

How do I know this? I have spoken with witnesses and have witnessed myself her saying she has lied at least on one occasion about the depression. The period of physical abuse apparently happened during uni, yet no-one saw the bruises to her face she has said she had. But the damning evidence is that her mother pays for all her bills and visits her often, so she is hardly abandoned by her family as she suggests. She is also hardly strapped for cash, with parental support (bills, rent being payed), rent assistance and centrelink. She has $70 for food each week. Far from strapped.

Why do I care, you say. Well, I've been depressed. Suicidally so. I have been emotionally abused several times over quite a few years. I am a full time student with 2 jobs, both unpredictable with hours and pay and I am not financial. Quite frankly I have quite a few troubles in my life, some ongoing. I have confused counsellors with my mental state and I don't get special allowances, nor do I want to.

I want to prove to the world that despite my failings I can still be supreme. I have only had 1 special allowance at uni for depression, and that was during my darkest time. When I was suicidal I didn't scream it from the roof tops like she has, instead hiding it til I was told off by the people who care for me to get help. And I have seen her get these allowances on weeks when she couldn't be stuffed doing work rather than weeks when she is in mental distress and it makes me want to scream.

Now, I don't mind the disabled girl getting extensions. She tries so very hard. I don't mind people who really try and do their best, getting help when they're beaten. That's the reason for the system. But people who mess with the system like this make it worse for the rest of us. We loose out as lecturers smarten up. One day, a lecturer is going to realise what she's doing and they might not let someone who really is depressed get an extension because of her and that might kill them if they are so inclined. I refuse to sit idly by and let her screw up someone else's life, like the disabled girl's as it can also reflect on her despite medical evidence to the contrary, simply because she's slack. Already some of the people are "anonymously" tipping off authorities to her flouting the rules and that "dobbing" will continue while people get annoyed. Others, however, simmer silently.

Silence only helps those who hurt the system while people who hurt are drowned out by these loud fakers.

I will not allow the silence to continue. If she is in need of help, she should take what has been offered, like the counsellors, and not keep taking the benefits if she refuses to help herself.

No more silence.