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<p>Considering the first sentence, I’m curious as to what grounds this “father” feels entitled to expect kids from his first marriage to tutor his new wife’s kids?</p>
<p>While the father has the right to say he doesn’t owe his kids from his first marriage anything once they turn 18, those kids IMO have at least as much of a right to refuse any assistance to their half-siblings on the same grounds. </p>
<p>I’m with Nrdsb4 on this one; courts have no business ordering parents to pay for college, IMHO. That being said, it’s despicable for a financially capable parent to abandon a child in need, so to speak. Many of us from modest backgrounds worked our way through college, paying tuition which would have cost nearly the total annual income of our parents. We cannot continue to pretend to have it both ways in this country. Either you are a legal adult when you become 18 and responsible for yourself or you are not. That 19-year olds receive child support confounds me.</p>
<p>On evening news, they showed some of the court proceedings. Rachel actually showed up in court wearing her Catholic school uniform!
It is now on the court record that she was suspended twice, engaged in underage drinking, lost the captains position on cheer squad and her position in youth ministry.
So sad this all being aired in public. </p>
<p>It’s a crazy situation as it now stands for those students who are 18 years old, legally adults but if their parents can’t or won’t pay even though financial aid analysis puts them at being able to pay, then those kids can’t get financial aid. Or if the parents refuse to fill out the financial aid forms, the kids get nothing but the unsub Direct loans and only after a lot of trouble. I’d like to see that challenged. </p>
<p>Those kids who are in state who have laws forcing parents to pay for parents under divorce/support rules are in better shape with parents who are divorced rather than intact. Crazy, isn’t it? I think it is.</p>
<p>I’d be okay with requiring parents to fill out FAFSA forms, but NO to mandating all parents pay for college for their kids. </p>
<p>Think bhmomma’s post above sheds some light on what is happening here. I could take the whole rebellious teenager thing and maybe even work through the move out, but having my family’s issues aired in the national/international press would do me in. I cannot imagine the stress that these parents are going through. If the “legal fee paying host father” really had this girls interests at heart, he would have attempted to bring the family together to work things out. Instead he comes at the parents with guns blazing in a court battle. I think he is trying to play hero to an attractive young girl. Am surprised the police office father can restrain himself. I know I would have a hard time doing so.</p>
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<p>Tell that to all the 20 year old “kids” who get cited for underage drinking. We have already set a precedent about selectively applying “adulthood”</p>
<p><a href=“Rachel Canning Loses Effort to Make Parents Pay High School Tuition - ABC News”>http://abcnews.go.com/US/rachel-canning-sues-parents-make-cover-school-expenses/story?id=22768908</a></p>
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<p>So our kids can choose to leave our homes and we must continue to pay “child support” and their allowance?? This 18 year old is incapable of supporting her self? Wow tell that to the greatest generation, our grand parents and parents. Amazing, she needs to graduate public HS (or pay the bill at Morris), get a second job( according to her FB page she works at Fridays) and go to community college and earn it all with her own 2 hands. But then she won’t have much time for partying on someone else’s dime.</p>
<p>^^^^^
Smart judge. Love that the request for legal fees was denied. Let’s see how “host father” proceeds from here. If I were his wife I would not be happy about substantial family resources being allocated in this manner. All families have issues, it’s up to them to resolve them amongst themselves.</p>
<p>And in the immortal words of Willy Wonka…You Get Nothing!</p>
<p>The parents enrolled their D into this private school. That obligated them. Some Catholic high schools require parents to sign contracts to pay for the full year. </p>
<p>If the parents wanted to stop paying then they should have gone to the school and withdrawn her. </p>
<p>The school has said that the parents are obligated to pay, so I suspect that they may have signed something that maybe that judge isn’t aware of. </p>
<p>I don’t like the way the parents listed what she’s done wrong, but then list the real reason at the end…and that’s that she won’t break up with her boyfriend who they think is a bad influence. I’m betting that that is the real reason why she’s out of the house. </p>
<p>^^^^
Perhaps, but there may be some truth to the parents claim of “bad influence”. The court proceedings were revealing. She lost her position as captain of her cheerleading squad, was caught or suspended for underage drinking and lost a position she had with her youth ministry. These are red flags that something is awry in her life.</p>
<p>I think the parents had to do something and obviously D was having none of it. I think this sort of rebellion is not out of the ordinary. What is out of the ordinary is another family playing judge and jury and encouraging the discourse with her family. The father was interviewed and is obviously distraught - he was choking back tears. He had not seen his own D in 5 months when he walked into court this afternoon. This is inconceivable to me.</p>
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<p>OT</p>
<p>This inconsistency is one major reason why I don’t agree with an older drinking age. Lower the age to 18 or increase the age of legal majority for everything…including armed forces recruitment to 21. </p>
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<p>This Catholic High School sounds far more lenient that many Catholic schools I knew of growing up…including the elementary school I attended…and it was considered quite lenient back then. </p>
<p>In most of the Catholic HSs I knew of, if students were caught using drugs or drinking…especially repeated offenses, they’d have been expelled. Most religious private schools I knew of had an exceedingly low tolerance for such offenses, especially due to possible fears that if word gets around that they tolerate repeat offenses, most parents would be inclined to take their kids out of a “drug/alcohol ridden school”. </p>
<p>Would be interesting to see if her Catholic HS is already having serious concerns about the negative impact this case will have on their reputation in this area considering the details in the court record and ability to recruit students…especially from families who don’t want their kids mixed up with “bad influences”.</p>
<p>It’d also be interesting to see if any colleges who admitted her already may end up rescinding their offers in light of this case and what has been released into the public record…</p>
<p>She may have difficulty attending college. Her parents are not only withholding paying for college, they will not give her the info she needs to file FAFSA. I happen to side with the parents, but the whole situation is a mess. I fault the other family for getting over-involved and encouraging her to sue rather than try and resolve things peacefully with her parents. </p>
<p>More detail… The daughter, spoiled or not, seems to have a point if parents have redirected her college fund.
<a href=“http://www.salon.com/2014/03/04/abandoned_daughter_or_spoiled_brat_teen_sues_her_parents_for_cutting_off_tuition”>http://www.salon.com/2014/03/04/abandoned_daughter_or_spoiled_brat_teen_sues_her_parents_for_cutting_off_tuition</a></p>
<p>The article doesn’t say that the parents must continue paying her allowance. I don’t know if they edited their story, since your post Nrdsb4, though it doesn’t say that they did. </p>
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<p>I am certain that if and when she moves back home, full college tuition will be on the table again. I really do think these parents are hopeful she will return. But if not, they certainly cannot “cave” now.</p>
<p>Here is another story that has a lot more detail about what Rachel claims was the home situation. </p>
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<p>The daughter lost on all counts.</p>
<p><a href=“Judge rules against NJ teen who sued parents for financial support - nj.com”>Judge rules against NJ teen who sued parents for financial support - nj.com;