The nightmare began in February when the cops came to arrest my daughter, who had just turned 18, and took her away without telling us what was happening.
On Saturday, February 16, our family’s world was torn apart and our daughter’s life turned upside down.
The police came and arrested my daughter, put her in handcuffs and no reason was given at all.
They refused to tell her mother anything at first because she had turned 18.
My daughter was ripped out of her mother’s arms, hysterical. The police finally told us she was being arrested on “probable cause.” When they said sexual battery on a person 12-16 years old, it was clear what was going on.
It had to have been my daughter’s girlfriend’s parents.
My daughter, Kaitlyn, was in a romantic relationship with a student at her school who was also a teammate on the basketball team.
She is a high school senior living in Indian River County, Florida.
Until halfway through the school year, she was a student at Indian River High School, where she had been a cheerleader, a varsity basketball player and was busy preparing for a career serving others in the nursing field.
Kate was a popular student who was voted as the student with “most school spirit.” Kate’s girlfriend was a freshman student enrolled in international baccalaureate courses with upperclassmen and a fellow player on the basketball team with Kate.
While Kate was three years older than her girlfriend, they were peers. But when Kate’s girlfriend’s parents learned of their relationship, they went directly to the police to press charges without sharing their objections with Kate or her family.
The police taped a conversation between Kate and her girlfriend, which led to Kate’s arrest. Kate was interrogated extensively without a lawyer present. I am a former police officer, so she trusted the police and didn’t feel she had anything to hide. Kate was eventually charged with two counts of felony lewd and lascivious battery on a child 12-16.
The prosecutor later offered a plea deal of felony child abuse, with two years house arrest followed by one year probation. Today, the girls are 18 and 15.
Kate’s girlfriend has taken no part in her prosecution and adamantly denies she is a victim, but the law grants her no rights in this matter. Kate has offered to permanently cease contact and leave the state if charges are dropped, but that offer has been rejected by the prosecutor and the girlfriend’s parents.
Before the legal trouble began, Kate was already a target at her school.
After the relationship started, the basketball coach approached her and said, “Kaitlyn, can I talk to you? I heard you have something going on with another female player on our team, and I can’t have that kind of drama on my team, I don’t allow it and I wouldn’t ever. So, I’m sorry, but playing on our team won’t work out for you.”
Yes, that’s right, my own daughter was removed from a sport she loves simply because she was in a relationship with another “student.”
Now, it didn’t stop there. The girl’s mother found out about the relationship, and, as several people told me, the girl’s mother said that there’s no way her daughter could be gay.
Anyone who knows my daughter Kate knows how wonderful she is.
Kate is an 18-year-old senior about to graduate with an exemplary record at school and home. She has always been a wonderful student, respected and well liked. She has cheered on the varsity cheer team all throughout high school, sung in chorus and was voted most school spirited. She has never been in trouble, ever. She truly is the model student and child.
This relationship occurred when they were both minors, and my daughter’s girlfriend’s parents waited until she turned 18 to arrest her.
These people never came to us, never tried to speak to us, didn’t try to get the school involved to speak to us and tell us they had a problem with the girls dating, not one single word.
Instead, they set out their vengeance and had Kate arrested on felony charges.
It was Kate’s senior year — she only had a few months until graduation and we wanted her to finish. But the parents petitioned the court and asked the judge to remove Kate from school, even though the judge already ruled Kate could continue school. But this other student’s parents feel like my daughter “made” their daughter gay.
My daughter’s girlfriend has said from day one, she cares about my daughter, she never wanted her parents to do this, she was 100% consenting and it was by her own choice that she was with my daughter.
She doesn’t want Kate to be punished.
My daughter’s life is being destroyed. Kate is deeply depressed, crying all the time and suffering night terrors.
I will do whatever it takes to fight for my daughter.
And I’m finding out that I am not alone.
Internet activist group Anonymous launched #OpJustice4Kaitlyn on May 19 and released a statement addressed to the Indian River County State Attorney’s Office that reads in part: “Kaitlyn Hunt is a bright young girl who was involved in a consensual, same-sex relationship while both she and her partner were minors. She has a big future ahead of her and there are people, thousands of people in fact, that have no intention of allowing you to ruin it with your rotten selective enforcement.”
How can you help?
First, sign this petition.
Second, if you would like to help with the considerable legal fees, you can purchase a bracelet that says “STOP THE HATE, FREE KATE.”
Third, 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.
Fourth, share this story!
Share with everyone. If you know a high school student, make sure he or she knows the law.
Please — let’s stop the hate. Free Kate.
Originally appeared at xoJane.
More from our partners at xoJane.com:
ok this is quite tragic, at teen age people tend easily to fall in love. I dont know how to place this. But I dont think she (or a boy in the same situation) should be placed in the sex offenders list at that age. We are not talking about a 30+y old person but a 18. Maybe a slap on the hand, but no more. IMO the law need to be changed…asap
http://www.salon.com/2013/05/24/kaitlyn_hunt_refuses_plea_offer_will_go_to_court_over_high_school_relationship/
Kaitlyn Hunt, the 18-year-old high school senior facing felony charges over a same-sex relationship with a 14-year-old freshman classmate, has refused a plea deal that would have labeled her a sex offender and placed her under house arrest for two years. Hunt’s parents, citing that the relationship was consensual, had requested Florida prosecutors reduce the charges to a misdemeanor, but their request was denied by the state.
The Daily Kos has withdrawn its petition in support of Kaitlyn Hunt. They write: “Thu May 23, 2013 at 10:29 AM PT: The public scrutiny of this case has brought to light problems with the initial reporting, and with the original story coming from the Hunt family. Previously, Hunt’s parents said that the younger girl was 15, and Hunt 17 when the relationship began. The release of the arrest warrant made clear, as subsequent news stories report, that the younger girl was 14 and Hunt was indeed 18 when the relationship began. These corrections, and the initial dishonesty of Hunt’s… Read more »
She didn’t get kicked from the team for being homosexual. She got kicked from the team for dating another teammate. That is a big difference. I have consulted for plenty of companies that will and have terminated employees over office relationship.
As for the law, its a dumb law, but hundreds of boys in FL have suffered its fate and she shouldn’t get off because she is a girl or in a homosexual relationship.
These people never came to us, never tried to speak to us, didn’t try to get the school involved to speak to us and tell us they had a problem with the girls dating, not one single word. The parents of the younger party now claim that they twice attempted to cease the relationship informally. The Smiths are portrayed by the Hunt Family as going to the law first. “It’s not the way it was. It was quite different. We had actually told Miss Hunt that this was wrong,” Laurie told CBS12’s Jana Eschbach. But, according to the Smiths Kate… Read more »
Some have asked the question if this would be such a stink if this were an 18 year old man and a 14 year old boy. The real question you should be asking is “Would this be such a stink if this were a 18 year old man with a 14 year old boy”. Personally I doubt the world would care, it wouldn’t be called homophobic, people wouldn’t be outraged and ANONYMOUS sure would not have gotten involved.
I’m sure that I am going to get crucified for this, but I have to point out a couple of things…after reading the details of this case from various media sources, I tend to agree with the notion that these parents are pushing these charges due to anger and probably homophobia. However I have to ask the readers on here who are parents….are you ok with your freshman daughter having sex with a senior guy? Because I wouldn’t be….nor would I be ok with my freshman son having sex with a senior girl….I teach and coach high school, and if… Read more »
The section where the father asserted the basketball coach had discriminated against his daughter put me off a bit. Granted there may be much more to it than indicated in the article, but the father claims his daughter was removed from the team “simply because she was in a relationship with another “student.”’ The previous paragraph makes it pretty clear that the coach didn’t remove her from the team for being gay or for having a relationship with another student; he removed her from the team because she was in a relationship with her teammate: “I can’t have that kind… Read more »
I do wonder if people would crack such a stink if it was an 18 year old boy. Either way Romeo n Juliet laws need to take this into account. 14 and 18 are sweet fuck all difference in maturity, it’s not great but it’s nothing as bad as say 30 and 14.
What’s really crazy, Archy, is that a current legal precedent states that if a 30+ year old woman gets pregnant though sex with a 15 year old boy the boy has to pay child support once he turns 18, and because it is considered “unlawful sexual intercourse” the boy doesn’t even get the rights to adopt or have custody of the child (the original spirit of the law was supposed to apply to men who had raped women, but it has been now applied the other way around.)
http://www.lawlink.com/research/caselevel3/80628
There is something I have to ask. Maybe it was mentioned in the article and I just missed it. Did Kate have any sexual contact with the other girl after Kate turned 18? The reason I ask is because if she did, then the law is pretty much cut and dried, If an 18 year old man was to have sex with a 15 year old girl, he would be guilty of a crime no matter how consenting the girl claims to have been. The parents can still prosecute the perceived offender because their child is a minor. The same,… Read more »
According to the Arrest Affidavit, the relationship did not even start until after Hunt turned 18.
Even if all the sexual contact occurred before Hunt turned 18, the younger person was 14 in this situation. Sexual activity with a person under 16 is still illegal. The charge and the prosecution may have been different because Hunt herself would be a minor at 17. But the sexual activity itself would still have been against the law.
This shatters my faith in humanity.
I thought these laws were intended to protect minors, not destroy their lives as they turn 18.
This case strikes me as a very interesting study in the contradictions and complications of the notion of equality on a number of levels.
How so Alastair? I’m curious what contradictions on the notion of equality you’re referring to.
In ways such as the following: 1. The same people who are championing Kate’s cause tend to be those who shout the loudest about ‘equality’ in other contexts. However, this is exactly what ‘equality’ under the law looks like. Strangely, the very thing that people seem to be outraged about here is that Kate hasn’t experienced (positive) discrimination. Of course, people will point to the supposed motives of her girlfriend’s parents, etc. and will claim that the relationship was consensual (apparently missing the point of age of consent laws entirely), but all of these details are red herrings, quite irrelevant… Read more »
Thank you for saying all that, Alastair. Female sexuality has always been stereotyped as benign and vulnerable. Some persons just refuse to believe that female/female sexual interaction can be anything but benign or good, even when it is non-consensual. Remember that one part of the feminist play “The Vagina Monologues” called “The Little Coochie Snorcher That Could”? That monologue tells of how a teenage girl is plied with alcohol by her 24 year old female babysitter. And then the babysitter does sexual things to her. The play depicts this a good thing in which the narrator is initiated into sexuality.… Read more »
Thank you for the clarification and for fulfilling my curiousity. I agree with all of the points you raised.
Be glad that your daughter is not your son. House arrest for 2 Felony counts of sexual abuse? You got off light, REALLY light.
I personally don’t care that it took a same sex relationship for the craziness of this law to be noticed. For the sake of lots of kids we need to decriminalize this sort of relationship. I dated a sophmore as a senior… thank goodness her parents didnt decide to prosecute me.
This relationship occurred when they were both minors, and my daughter’s girlfriend’s parents waited until she turned 18 to arrest her. According the Arrest Affidavit, Kaitlyn Hunt’s birthday is August 14, 1994. That means she turned 18 in August of 2012 right at the start of the school year. The affidavit also says that the association between the two began in November of 2012. This would mean that Hunt did not turn 18 in the course of the relationship, but was 18 at the start of the relationship. Maybe the affidavit is inaccurate or the Sheriff’s Office is lying? But… Read more »
Man, this is very distressing. I cannot believe the lengths people will go to hurt others. The fear and outright prejudice exposed here is very horrifying. I’ll be praying for you and your family, this is no way to be a neighbor. Those parents must have some immense shame in their past that they think doing this to your daughter would somehow redeem them. They are so wrong. This kind of callous behavior to a young girl is just horrible. Let her know that people care, and love her regardless of her sexual status. John 8:7 And as they continued… Read more »
The way the other her girlfriends parents went about this the worst thing they could have ever done. I think they are cowards and there are true haters of life. They have assured that that when their daughter turns 18 she will leave and never speak with them again. I truly feel sorry for these girls, please hang in there everything will work out.
In some states she could sue to be emancipated from her parents even before the age of 18. Maybe even at 16. Not sure how that works, but it sounds to me like she has some grounds for it. Her parents can’t prevent her from testifying forever.
Sure she could, then get a job on the strength of her GED, pay rent, insurance, gas, food, clothing, entertainment, cable & cell phone herself.
I’ve been advocating this course for my kids for years…
Maybe. But if she is presumably living with her parents still, they may be applying pressure to make her repudiate the relationship. And some minors do succumb to that kind of parental pressure.
It’s pretty clear that one major motive for charging her was the fact that it was a same-sex relationship. It’s horrible that the girlfriend’s parents have used the law in a homophobic way. However, the law itself makes no distinctions on that basis. True equality means the law applies to people regardless of sexual orientation. The way the law is written, someone who’s under a certain age cannot really consent. Her girlfriend cannot say that the relationship is innocent because they were both underage AND say that it was consensual. It can’t be both underage and consensual. On the basis… Read more »
But a bad law is also simply a bad law. Continuing to enforce it or utilise it to prosecute only shows a stark adoration for the most prurient form of fascism. (not that you yourself mentioned supporting this, but you did explain in your secord paragraph the way it is ‘excusable’ and justified most often.) And the US puts too much money and power behind its judicial branch, laws which are finally realised to be ‘bad’ never have people sentenced under them retroactively released/commuted to time served or have their records expunged without a terribly lengthy and costly legal battle… Read more »
I tend to think the legislate is the branch rung amok. The power of the judicia, and the opportunity for nuanced judgement made by qualified officials close to the case, appears to be ever fading to a legislate that is increasing driven by mass hysteria and a perpetual ratcheting up of “tough-on-crime”.
If it could be proven that the prosecutor’s office had refused to persue the complaints of other parents in similar hetero cases then the charge of homophobia would be appropriate. The indignation, to this case, by right minded people is reminiscent at the confusion of Hate Crime charges being brought against minorities assaulting Anglos. Break this down to it’s components– an 18 yr old jock having sex with a 14 yr old– an analyse your feelings…. I’m not sure where I stand on this case, I’m the father of a 14 yr old… I also had a terrible argument with… Read more »
What bothers me about this is that in fact there are a lot of teen age boys who had similar intimate relationships are now listed as sexual offenders. If the laws apply to heterosexuals, more specifically males, why should they not apply to any other orientation and gender?
I think there is a need for greater discernment and latitude with this type of law, regardless of orientation and gender. Some states (including Florida, I believe) have “Romeo and Juliet” laws that take into account consensual relationships between teens, so long as the younger partner is not younger than 14 (and a few other conditions—age range, affinity, etc). The abuse of the statute in this case doesn’t do anything to protect any minor, which should be the reason for having statutory rape laws in the first place. This is being used as a tool to propagate homophobia and hatred.… Read more »
The age of consent law in Florida says that if the older participant in the relationship is younger than 24, then that personally may legally engage in consensual sexual activity with a person who is at least 16. As for Florida’s version of a “Romeo & Juliet” law, that law allows some persons who were convicted of having consensual sexual relations with an underage person to remove their names from the sexual offender registry, provided that the relationship was within a certain age range difference and they meet other qualifications. However, it does not legalize those kinds of sexual relations.… Read more »
Regardless of the underlying reason the parents used the law in this case what Kaitlyn did was still illegal according to Floriday state law. The law is there to protect young and impressionable minors from being sexually exploited by adults. Now I do agree that the law needs adjusting (the best Romeo and Juliette law I’d heard of says that it’s okay as long as the minor is at least fourteen and the older partner is within five years of the minor’s age it’s okay; in other words if the minor is 14 the partner could legally be 19 years… Read more »
Yes, there are scores of young boys who have been charged with statutory rape but there was no outcry until the law was applied equally to a lesbian. Also notice how no one is asking that boys previously convicted under these same circumstances have their records expunged. Plenty of mothers have used these laws to stop their daughters from dating an older boy. Equality means equality & now people are causing an uproar asking for an exception because it’s not a boy. It’s sad that when this continued to happen to young boys most of society did not care. But… Read more »
“It’s sad that when this continued to happen to young boys most of society did not care. But apply the law equally to a woman & suddenly it’s unfair.” Most of society? Are you basing that on this article alone or on information from similar situations as well? In this particular case, the man is criticizing the law because it affects his child. Not because it affects young women in general. Personally, I’ve always thought this law was problematic from the moment I first heard of young men labelled sex offenders for having consensual relationships with their peers. Most people… Read more »
In this particular case, the man is criticizing the law because it affects his child. Not because it affects young women in general. I do not question his motives. However, he and his supporters have taken pains to emphasize that Hunt is white, female, young, conventionally attractive, and some “All American” sort of high school student. They are not attacking the law because it affects “young women in general” but they are certainly employing and manipulating the kind of gendered sympathy that people pay to “young women in general.” I don’t think there’s a general bias against males on this… Read more »