Rose McGrath, 12, of Battle Creek. says attending St. Joseph's Middle School has been the only thing that has made her feel normal during her two and one-half year battle against leukemia. (Screenshot via WWMT-TV)

» Get Patch's daily newsletter and news alerts. A 12-year-old Michigan girl had what seemed like a fail-safe reason for missing school – cancer – but was expelled anyway.

Rose McGrath, a middle school student at Battle Creek Area Catholic Schools, was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in August 2012. She finished treatment in December and her illness is in remission, but she still has bouts of nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain that keep her out of classes at St. Joseph's Middle School. "Even though she's now done with her treatment, you still have a very long recovery process because you've basically just put two and a half years of poison into your body," Rose's mother, Barbara McGrath, told WWMT-TV.

Barbara McGrath said Rose was passing core classes, but her academic performance and poor attendance record were cited in the bombshell letter her parents received last week informing them Rose was being "dismissed" from the school. "These were extraordinary circumstances, but so many accommodations were made we felt eventually it became a point where we really had to help Rose, by being able to make sure that she was getting the assistance that she needed and to learn," the Rev John Fleckenstein, speaking on behalf of the school, told WWMT.

Also on Patch:

Rose is crushed. Not only does she see her dismissal as unfair – "I didn't do anything wrong," she told the TV station – but going to school was one of the only things that made her feel like a normal kid.