The parents of a Florida teen had her
girlfriend arrested and expelled from high school shortly after she
tuned 18.
Kate Hunt began dating a female student
at the start of the year, according to an account posted on Facebook
by Hunt's mother, Kelly Hunt Smith.
“They were both students in the same
high school, it was a mutual consenting relationship on both parts,”
Smith
wrote. “This was unusual for Kate, she has always dated boys,
but being the kind of mother I am, I didn't want to make it a big
deal.”
After Hunt turned 18 in February, her
girlfriend's parents pressed charges against her.
“The police came to our home and
arrested my daughter, put her in hand cuffs and we had no idea why.
They refused to tell us anything at first because she had turned 18.
Kate was ripped out of our arms, terrified, crying hysterically. My
younger daughter was there at the time, my husband and myself, we
were mortified. They finally told us she was being arrested on
'probable cause.' I asked them probable cause of what, they said
sexual battery on a person 12-16 years old.”
After officials at Sebastian River High
School refused to expel Hunt, the parents appealed to the school
board and had her expelled.
“[The parents] are out to destroy my
daughter,” said Smith, “because they feel like she 'made' their
daughter gay. They see being gay as wrong and they blame my
daughter. Of course, I see it 100% differently. I don't see or
label these girls as gay. They are teenagers in high school
experimenting with their sexuality – with mutual consent. And even
if their daughter is gay, who cares? She is still their daughter.”
The
family has started an online petition calling on the state to
drop the charges against Hunt.