Crazy little thing called Love!

As some of you may know Stevens first externship didn’t go as planned. After three and a half weeks in his fieldwork teacher graded Steven and decided that he wasn’t progressing fast enough. So after a meeting with the director of occupational therapy program at Pima Steven withdrew from the program. The plan was to try and get some more help in the form of observation and volunteer work with other professional COTA’s. Steven was not given clear expectations and was given a lot of wrong information. Steve was advised that an appeal could take about 30 days to set up. (We thought he would have to go to a review board for an appeal) The school did provide him with a list of sites to call and try to set up more observation but most of them couldn’t take another student or did not have time. It was also suggested that Steven see a doctor for a possible attention defecate problem. We have started to use essential oils and have found one that helps his focus and concentration. Steven was also told in his first meeting to write a letter explaining the problems he was having in fieldwork and his plan to correct them for another attempt at fieldwork.

Five weeks have now gone by and Steven had another meeting with the director of the occupational therapy program to go over what Steven has been doing to get back into the program. What Steven thought was everything on the list he was given was not enough. He wrote the letter and sent it, he completed 15-20 hours of observation, and spoke to someone about the supposed ADD issue and he is using the essential oil. The director told Steven that he should have done 15 to 20 hours of observation a week and he should have been in contact with her more. She told him that she would have tried to help him get into more sites for observation. These expectations were not given to Steven in the first meeting. The director also admitted that there was a breakdown in communication between her and the school but not between her and Steven. (I don’t know how that is possible!! Steven was told he would be going in front of an appeals board and now the decision was all the directors!!) As a result of this meeting Steven has now been terminated and must now go through an appeals process which can take 60 days to set up. The expectations have now been made clearer and Steven is trying to meet them. If Steven isn’t accepted back into the program after the appeal then all the time and money we put into school will be for nothing. He won’t be able to graduate or get a job.

This set back has been very stressful. All the plans we had made have been flushed down the toilet. Along with all the preparations we made. I cannot begin to tell you how hard it has been to not be angry at the whole situation. It feels like we have been jerked around by Steven’s school teacher that was trying to cover up her mistakes and blame Steven for everything. We both know that there was a problem on both sides of the situation. And Steven is trying to improve his communication skills and has been studying harder than ever. I don’t know how we are going to make it through this trial. But we have said a lot of prayers, fasted, and gone to the temple. We are trying to do all we can and learn to rely on our heavenly Father.