After a year of tireless hard work, numerous health problems and the constant fight against ignorance and ableism that I faced as a student at a prestigious art school, I finally finished my first year - I felt accomplished, like I could do anything. This was only solidified by my tutors and mentor, they said that they were proud of me, that I was talented, resilient and strong. Only to find out less than two weeks before I start my second year, that I am now being removed and dropped from the school, and that if I want to continue studying there, I have to pay the first years tuition again, with no loan. That's £9250+ out of my own pocket, money I do not have. No explanation. No justification. No answers. I cannot tell you how distraught I am, how much I have cried, how many emails and phone calls I have made, out of desperation to get to the bottom of this and fight for my right to stay at a school where I have championed to have a place at, a school where I have faced adversity at every turn, a school where I, a physically disabled and autistic student have tirelessly fought to be seen as just like everyone else.

I don't exactly know what I want to get out of this petition apart from the fact that I want to be heard. I want justice for the horrific ableism I have faced as a disabled student in a school that prides themselves on their acceptance and diversity. I want answers. 

I will fight this right until the end. I deserve to be seen. I deserve my place here as much as anybody else. I will no longer be meek and cordial, this is me standing up, not only for myself, but for other students like me, who have been hurt by the institutionalised bigotry that exists within education.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Grey.