There is a bizarre story out of New Jersey burning up TheBlaze today. A high school senior from northern New Jersey took her parents to court to demand they pay her child support in excess of $650 a week and pay her private school tuition. The catch? 18-year-old Rachel Canning moved out of her parent’s house after deciding she no longer wanted to live under their rules. Yesterday, Canning’s parents enjoyed an early victory, with Judge Peter Bogaard ruling the parents do not need to make any payments for the time being. He scheduled a hearing for next month to decide whether to require the parents to pay for their daughter’s college tuition.
“I will tell you that I think the world is absolutely upside down," Glenn said on radio this morning. "When we give you the full details on what has happened in New Jersey and what this girl is claiming. We are living in a world that's upside down… [where] kids think they deserve it. You can't cut them off. The government is saying you're a kid until you're 26. And you know, what's next? We're suing for the right to have television sets in our bedrooms? What's next? Can they say this is cruel and unusual punishment four not sending your kids to college? Can the state take your kid?”
TheBlaze offers the following summary of the case thus far:
- A New Jersey senior is suing her parents for support and college tuition, claiming they kicked her out of the house.
- Rachel Canning’s parents though say she left their home last year of her own accord, not wanting to follow their rules, which included keeping a curfew, doing some chores and reconsidering a boyfriend relationship they disagreed with.
- As a result, they stopped paying her private school tuition and took away the car they paid for while she has continued to live with a friend’s family.
- A New Jersey judge heard the case Tuesday and ruled against forcing Canning’s parents to pay weekly child support and put off the decision regarding college tuition for a hearing next month.
- Parents: “… 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?’”
Read the entire report from TheBlaze HERE.
Canning claims her parents are abusive, contributed to an eating disorder she developed, and pushed her to get a basketball scholarship. The parent’s, meanwhile, believe they were supportive – helping her through the eating disorder and paying for her to go to a private school where she would not get as much playing time in basketball as she would have at a public school.
During the court proceedings, vile text messages and emails sent by Canning to her mother emerged. In one email, Canning tells her mother: “I f***ing hat you, and I’ve written you off, so don't talk to me. Don't do anything. I'm blocking from you just about everything. Have a nice life.”
“Oh, my gosh,” Glenn said exasperatedly. “And this kid is suing the parents saying she demands a college scholarship. In the trial the father said, ‘No matter what she says, no matter what she says, we want everybody to know, we still love our daughter. We are embarrassed by the choices she's making. We wish she wasn't making the choices she's making, but she is making them, but we still love our daughter.’”
Ultimately, Glenn believes these parents should sue the father of their daughter’s friend who offered her legal counsel.
“This judge should say: Restitution needs to be made by this girl's friend's father. Her friend's father was the attorney. Instead of an adult saying, ‘You know what, sweetheart… They're your parents. Go back home. You're not living here’… He didn't do that. This parent was dragged through court. And I personally think these parents should sue him,” Glenn said. “And I know they probably won’t want to do that because they've had enough. But boy, oh, boy, what kind of society have we turned into? And if you happen to be in a situation right now, where your family and you don't know what to do… We've been there. Hold on. It gets better in the end.”