

Kaitlyn Hunt, an 18 year old high school girl from Florida, has been removed from her school and arrested for "lewd and lascivious battery on a child 12 to 16" after the parents of her 15 year old girlfriend called police. Hunt and the other girl had been dating for almost one year.

"These people (the parent’s of the 15 year old) never came to us as parents, never tried to speak to us... and tell us they had a problem with the girls dating," Kaitlyn Hunt's mother, Kelley Hunt-Smith, wrote on Facebook. "...They were out to destroy my daughter. [They] feel like my daughter 'made' their daughter gay."

“This should have never been a legal matter, it is a family matter. They are trying to send an innocent young girl to prison because they are full of hate and bigotry. These girls are teenagers in high school, who had one mutual consenting sexual experience. My daughter isn’t a criminal, she isn’t a predator. The (other) daughter 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 at all, and feels like they did nothing wrong.”

Originally the Sebastian River High School administration denied the request of the other girl’s parents to have Hunt expelled. A judge’s order also allowed Hunt to stay in the school. That, however, changed when the parents petitioned the school board. The board removed Kaityn from school shortly before she was due to graduate.

The state attorney's office has offered Kaitlyn Hunt a plea deal which includes two years' house arrest and a year of probation.

A Change.org petition urging the Indian River County State Attorney's Office to stop prosecution of Kaitlyn Hunt had drawn more than 30,000 signatures and "Free Kate," a Facebook group supporting the girl had amassed nearly 20,000 followers.