Student expelled from college for being a lesbian, forced to repay scholarship funds
A conservative Christian college in Omaha expelled a student one semester before her graduation when they found out she was a lesbian — and then demanded she repay them for scholarship funds she had earned.
Grace University has refused to transfer Danielle Powell’s credits to another school unless she pays $6,300, the tuition from her spring semester in 2011, when administrators found out she was gay. Powell would have been the first in her family to earn a college degree.
Michael James, executive vice president at Grace University, justified the college’s actions to The Huffington Post, affirming that its student handbook forebade “sexually immoral behavior.” Quoting from the handbook, James stated:
“Any student involved in sexually immoral behavior, including premarital sex, adultery, and homosexual acts, is at minimum placed on University probation and may be subject to a Judiciary Hearing.”
Powell and her wife started a petition to get Grace University to drop its demands. (By the way, they’re the couple who got engaged onstage at a Macklemore concert — watch the video!) She deserves better than this. Help her out?