As the summer of 2012 came to an end, the future looked bright for 17-year-old Sebastian River High School student Kaitlyn Hunt. Voted the student with "Most School Spirit" by her peers, Kaitlyn was an active cheerleader, a varsity athlete, a camp counselor, 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 and her friend, a 14-year-old freshmen girl in Sebastian River High's IB program who played varsity sports and took classes with upper classmen began to become closer. The girls were peers in the same social circle, and as happens every day in high schools across America, their friendship eventually developed into more. In September, shortly after Kaitlyn's 18th birthday, and just a few months to her 15th 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. Please help stop this misuse and abuse of the law!