Grace University Student Kicked Out For Being Lesbian, Must Repay Thousands
Danielle Powell was close to getting her bachelor's degree when she was kicked out of her university for being gay in 2012, and now the only way the school will transfer her credits to another school is if she agrees to pay $6,300. In response, Powell has launched an online petition to pressure the school to forgive the debt.
Powell was a student at Grace University in early 2011 when she began her first same-sex relationship. Up until that point, neither she nor her then-girlfriend identified as lesbian. When Grace, a religious university in Omaha, Neb., found out about the relationship through a spiritual adviser at the school, they brought Powell before a judiciary board to decide whether she should be allowed to stay enrolled.
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Powell said the board asked her why she did what she did and whether she was remorseful, treating her, in her words, "like a sexual predator." The university ultimately decided in March 2011 to suspend her and not allow her to finish the semester. Powell said she was also told she now owed Grace just over $6,000 after an academic scholarship she'd been awarded was revoked.
Powell said that the university told her she could participate in a restoration program, involving counseling and regular church attendance, to get readmitted, but she would have to live off campus and could not stay overnight in the dorms. She began the restoration process in the summer of 2011, so as not to jeopardize work that she was afraid she might lose by transferring to another institution.
But shortly before the start of the spring 2012 semester, Grace decided not to readmit her because she was still dating women.
"They were doing a witch hunt," Powell said, "calling around to see if I was in a same-sex relationship."
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James told Powell in a letter, a copy of which was provided to HuffPost, that she was being "deceitful" and said it would be "unethical" for the university to readmit her since it "would be impossible for the faculty of Grace University to affirm your Christian character, a requirement for degree conferral."
James said anyone who withdraws before the semester is 60 percent complete will usually owe a balance, because federal law obligates Grace to return Title IV funds -- federal grants, loans and work-study funds -- on behalf of the withdrawn student. "Suspension or expulsion constitutes withdrawal," James said in an email
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/12/danielle-powell-grace-university_n_3428514.html
Petition:
https://www.change.org/petitions/grace-university-don-t-force-my-wife-to-pay-back-college-scholarships-because-she-s-gay
How upsetting is it that this school receives federal funds? Please sign the petition for this woman since she's a victim of the Christian extortion program.
= new reply since forum marked as read
