College Demands Danielle Powell Pay Back Financial Aid

The story of Danielle Powell, a lesbian student who had been kicked out of Grace University in Omaha Nebraska, continues on as the university is still demanding that Powell pay back her financial aid that had been awarded to her.

Sources are now saying that Grace University is demanding that Powell pay back $6,000 because she did not finish the semester.

This money was a part of her financial aid package which includes federal loans and grants.

According to the site, Think Progress:

“‘The Department of Education says any money she may or may not owe the school is between the two of them and “not at all because of federal rules.'”

“On the other hand, there are also no rules requiring the university not to discriminate based on sexual orientation when receiving financial aid from the federal government, so it’s unclear territory.”

Powell was already a student at the university when she began her first same-sex relationship, and before that she had never identified as a lesbian.

When the school found out that Power was engaging in this type of relationship, Daily Mail said Powell was brought before a judiciary board that would decide if she would be allowed to remain at the school.

Powell had initially agreed to partake in a restoration program which included counseling and regular church attendance, but later backed out and was therefore expelled from the university.

Powell and her wife have been working hard to fight the school’s demands for payback.

They had even started a petition urging the university to waive the supposed debt on Change.org petition, earning well over 50,000 signatures already.

Grace Student Handbook

Think Progress did a little searching through the Grace Student Handbook, and this is what they found:

Grace’s Student Handbook includes a litany of rules all students are required to sign and abide by.

For example, students are not allowed to watch HBO, VH1, MTV, BET, Comedy Central, or any R-rated movie on campus.

It also includes severe limitations on displays of affection, explicitly prohibiting activities like “extending holding or embracing one another,” “lying next to each other,” kissing, and “giving backrubs/rubbing shoulders.”

“Homosexual acts” are considered “sexually immoral behavior” and thus a “Level-Three violation,” which at minimum includes University Probation and possibly fines starting at $100:

Depending upon circumstances surrounding the violation and/or the apparent heart attitude of the Level-Three violator, students are placed on University Probation and may be required to appear before [a Student/Faculty Judiciary Committee (SFJC)]. […]

Level-Three Violations are given with the anticipation and expectation that the probationary conditions will facilitate life change and a cooperative spirit.

That being said, students need to know that if, after having been extended grace a first time, failure to modify one’s behavior and/or fully comply with the probationary conditions laid out by the SFJC or Student Deans, positions that student for possible suspension or dismissal from the University.

Danielle Powell has been through a lot sense being expelled from Grace University for being a lesbian, and when she thought it was getting better, the school demanded she pay them back all her financial aid. So who is in the wrong in this situation?