JACKSONVILLE Fla.-- FSCJ may be facing more than $500,000 in fines after issuing millions of dollars in Federal Pell Grants they weren't supposed to. Now, some students say they are the ones really suffering, left to pay back thousands of dollars they thought they would get.
"It's hard, I don't have the money," said Randy Durden. "I struggle to pay my daily bills, much less a $1,600 bill from school."
Durden isn't taking the news lying down. He says it's time the school pays up and he's petitioning to get them to do so.
"The petition is to make the school stand up and take accountability for all their negligence," he said. "It's not my debt. It's the schools debt and I'm not going to pay it," he said.
The petition was posted three days ago. Since that time, more than 120 people have signed the petition.
"I hope it makes some difference, but I'm not going to back down until I get an answer," he said.
Action News reached out to FSCJ representatives, who said they are working to get a response together for Monday. In the meantime, FSCJ's interim president has authorized a grace period for students impacted, to give them time to come up with a payment plan.
Durden says he doesn't plan on paying FSCJ a single cent.
