As the summer of 2012 came to an end, the future looked bright for
17-year-old Sebastian River High School senior Kaitlyn Hunt. Voted the
student with "Most School Spirit" by her peers, Kaitlyn was an active
cheerleader, a basketball player, a camp counselor and cheering coach,
and a medical assistant training to join the nursing program at Valencia
College after graduation. She looked forward to a career helping others
and a memorable final year of high school.
At the beginning of
the school year, Kaitlyn made friends with a 14-year-old freshmen girl
in Sebastian River High's IB program who played varsity sports and took
classes with upper classmen. The girls were peers in the same social
circle, and as happens every day high schools across America, their
friendship eventually developed into more. In September, shortly after
Kaitlyn's 18th birthday, the girls began dating, and they eventually
expressed their affection for one another in intimate ways.
When
the girls' basketball coach found out that two of her players were
dating, she kicked Kaitlyn off the team and informed her girlfriend's
parents that their daughter was in a same-sex relationship. The parents
then conspired with police to entrap Kaitlyn and press charges.
The
police recorded a phone conversation between the two girls, who today
are 18 and 15, in which they discussed their relationship. Kaitlyn was
arrested and charged with two counts of felony lewd and lascivious
battery on a child 12-16. Kaitlyn's girlfriend denies that Kaitlyn ever
pressured her and is adamant that their relationship is entirely
consensual, but her parents are out to destroy Kaitlyn's life. After two
separate judges ruled that Kaitlyn could finish her senior year with
her peers, her girlfriend's parents appealed to the Indian River County
School Board, who expelled Kaitlyn sent her to the alternative school.
The
law is designed to protect our children, but the law does not serve its
purpose when it is applied to consensual behavior between peers.
What can you do to help? First, please sign this petition:
http://www.change.org/petitions/india...Next,
if you're a resident of Florida, please contact your state legislators
and tell them the law needs to protect high school peers from
prosecution. Find your state legislators here:
http://www.leg.state.fl.us/Welcome/in...If not a Florida resident, contact your legislators, anyway. Most states have similarly unjust laws.
If you know a high school student, make sure he or she knows the law. We don't want our children going to jail out of ignorance.
Finally, share this story with everyone you know. Things need to change. We can make that change happen together.