Posted on 05/20/2013 12:47:07 PM PDT by presidio9
An 18-year-old Florida student’s senior year has become a nightmare — all because she was in a same-sex relationship with a 15-year-old, her family says.
Kaitlyn Hunt was arrested Feb. 16 for having a physical relationship with a younger classmate, who was her girlfriend at the time, mom Kelley Hunt Smith wrote on Facebook.
Under Florida law, Hunt could see up to 15 years in prison and must register as a sex offender. A plea deal, however, remains on the table that would give Hunt two years' house arrest and one year of probation, her family said.
“Does my daughter deserve to lose her life for 15 years, or 3 years, or to have no life, because of one choice she made in high school, absolutely not!!” Hunt Smith wrote Friday, adding, “This is a mother’s nightmare.”
The distraught mom and her family has launched an online campaign asking supporters to petition the State Attorney’s office in Indian River County and have them reconsider the charges.
“The (assistant) state attorney, Brian Workman needs to use taxpayers money to prosecute REAL criminals, not a high school student who has never been in trouble a day in her young life, all because she had a mutual consenting relationship with someone who has bigoted parents,” wrote Hunt Smith, who didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment Sunday.
Hunt’s uncle, Andrew Gay, told the Daily News that the girls were in the same social circle at Sebastian River High School and played together on the basketball team.
In September, after Hunt turned 18, she and the other girl, a freshman, began dating and expressed their relationship in “intimate ways,” the family said.
But when the basketball coach found out about their relationship, Hunt was thrown off the team and the other girl’s parents were notified.
The parents then told police, and a phone call was recorded between their daughter and Hunt in which the girls discussed their relationship, Gay said.
The age of consent in Florida is 18.
Hunt was arrested on two counts of felony lewd and lascivious battery on a child ages 12 to 16, jail records show.
Her family was devastated.
“We certainly aren’t saying that all 18-year olds anywhere should be able to date all 15-year olds,” Gay said. “But this is a situation where these two girls were in the same social circle, on the same basketball team. I just don’t think Kaitlyn looked at this girl and thought, 'She’s a certain age, so she’s off limits to me.'”
Hunt Smith claims the other family was upset because their daughter was in a same-sex relationship and believed that Hunt had somehow “made” their daughter gay.
“Of course I see it 100% different,” Hunt Smith wrote. “I don’t see or label these girls as gay. They are teenagers in high school experimenting with their sexuality, all teens do it in one form or another. ... And even if their daughter is gay, who cares, she is still their daughter.”
Hunt was expelled from the high school and agreed to have no contact with the other girl. She also transferred to an alternative high school.
Although she’ll be allowed to walk with the graduating class at Sebastian River High School, her final year — and future — has been tainted by scandal.
“Should the girls have made better choices, YES. I agree," Hunt Smith said, "but is this criminal, no."
The State Attorney’s Office in Indian River County couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
Regardless of whether the family takes the plea, Gay said, a felony child abuse charge will ruin his niece’s future and her dream of one day becoming a nurse.
“She’s been a great student, so bright and not troubled at all,” Gay said. “She was voted ‘most school spirit.’ What’s happened to her now is ridiculous.”
Yes, but at the core sex is sex, in or out of marriage. And it is mindboggling to me how it can be believed that a married 15 yo is not getting ‘pedoized’ but an unmarried 15 yo is. Thats like the muslims saying that if you marry the rape victim that it wasn’t rape.
No matter the statute's phrasing, it is hard to justify that idea that two students in the same school, sharing the same daily experiences, are SO far apart in experience and wisdom that one must have their liberty taken for a decade or so, and have their entire future destroyed (registered offender), just for getting into a youthful relationship.
Pedophilia is actually an adult having sex with a pre-pubescent child. Sex with an adolescent (by an older person) is called ebeophilia or some version of that word.
It would be good if people used the correct terminology.
What needs to happen are two things.
1. Sex outside of marriage needs to regain shame.
2. Homosexual acts need to regain shame and illegality.
A person 24 years of age or older who engages in sexual activity with a person 16 or 17 years of age commits a felony of the second degree 794.05 (1)
You must be a proud Muslim. Shall we start the Honor Killings, too?
I don’t disagree at all. But we both know it will never happen. Thus the ‘devo’lution will continue unabated.
On the pedo thing, How many people ever even knew the other word existed? Words no longer mean anything. I’m sick of fighting it.
End of discussion.
I humble beg to disagree. I think the devolution will hit bottom (almost has) and will turn the other way, back to reality. I really do. That is why I maintain my good cheer (most of the time, I do have to take breaks from FR) and why I am still in “fight it” mode.
:-)
Taking a look know, will reply. Who is that person who is attacking you, anyway? Any history?
I was thinking the same thing. Almost looks like a computer generated police sketch. Left eye is very odd.
“Democrats love kids having sex, you would have to be blind to miss that.”
Actually, all like it. The well acculturated conservative kids just know the risks are not worth it.
The logical solution is to implement a Romeo/Juliet exception to the Florida law/ For example, if the couple is 3 years or less apart in age, then the crime gets downgraded to a misdemeanor or something like that. Other states have these logical provisions.
This thread would have gone a lot easier if the libertarians would conceed three things: Age of consent laws were put in place to protect parents rights to determine what is acceptable for their children, Fifteen is probably on the young side to be having sex, and when a fifteen year-old and an eighteen year-old get together the eighteen year-old is usually the one who initiates sex.
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