(Spoiled) Daughter Suing Parents for College Tuition

homecomingMarch 4, 2004 Update from Fox News:  “A New Jersey honor student suing her parents in a potentially precedent-setting lawsuit had her motions for financial support, including high school tuition payment, denied Tuesday by a judge who said it would set a bad precedent by setting limits on parenting.”

A New Jersey cheerleader and honor student who left home after turning eighteen is suing her parents for college tuition. According to Rachel Canning, her parents kicked her out, but they claim that she moved out on her eighteenth birthday because she did not want to follow the household rules. Her dad told the Daily Record, “We’re heartbroken, but what do you do when a child says, ‘I don’t want your rules, but I want everything under the sun and you to pay for it’?”

Rachel is living with a friend whose parents are funding her legal action, which includes suing not only for access to a college tuition fund, but also demands that her parents pay an outstanding private school tuition bill as well as her living expenses that have accrued since she left home.

According to the Daily Record,

“The father said that he and his wife did stop paying the Morris Catholic tuition and have kept Rachel’s car because they paid for it. The father contended that Rachel moved out because she didn’t want to abide by simple household rules — be respectful, keep a curfew, return “borrowed” items to her two sisters, manage a few chores, and reconsider or end her relationship with a boyfriend the parents believe is a bad influence.”

But turning eighteen does not automatically mean a child is emancipated in New Jersey:

The mere fact that a child has turned 18 is not an automatic reason to stop financial support, according to Helfand and several longtime family attorneys in Morris County. A key court decision in the state specifies that, “A child’s admittance and attendance at college will overcome the rebuttable presumption that a child may be emancipated at age 18.”

Rachel is alleging abuse, according to the case filings, but her father, Sean Canning, said that a “DCP&P representative visited his home for about three hours last fall, found nothing amiss, determined that Rachel was ‘spoiled’” and discontinued the investigation. He said that he and his wife are beside themselves that discord with their daughter has reached this level.

Should parents be forced to provide support for adult children who don’t want to follow the family rules? This case could set some very interesting precedents.

Katie Abercrombie

Florida PolitiChick Katie Abercrombie, native of North Carolina and a long-time resident in Florida, is a 20-year homeschooling veteran. Now that her four children are grown, she continues to indulge her love for teaching and learning by tutoring, substitute teaching, and teaching writing classes for homeschoolers. She earned her BS degree from Florida Southern College and her MA from Rollins College. BC, or Before Children, she served as the Director of Youth and Family Ministry at her church and has continued to be active in ministry and leadership in her current church. Homeschooling afforded her many opportunities to be politically active and she recently retired from a term on the Orange County Republican Executive Committee. Like Katie's Political Page on Facebook and follow her on Twitter @aberaussie.

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