Student Sues Parents for College Aid

[SGOS]

Most states require parents to provide for their children until age 18 and either graduating from high school or dropping out of high school.

Since she is still attending high school, her parents will lose on that issue as a matter of law.

I didn't know about the "over 18, but still in high school caveat", but it makes sense.  Therein lies part of the helpful but excluded information in the article.  

The forum should provide a legal advisor for threads like this.   :-D

[SGOS]

I know for a fact that the child support ends at 18..........UNLESS they decide to attend college, in which case it continues to 21. Here in Michigan anyway, according to my attorney.

Amazing.  That would change the whole debate.  I guess I haven't been keeping up with my law studies.   I always wondered why they kept telling me I couldn't take the bar exam.   :-D

[Deidre32]

Just because you CAN do something, doesn't mean you should. Her parents don't owe her a college education.

The ironic thing about this story is that these parents probably created this behavior in their daughter. Being too permissive, etc. She looks like she has no respect for them, but they probably enabled this behavior for a while.

[The Skeletal Atheist]

I know for a fact that the child support ends at 18..........UNLESS they decide to attend college, in which case it continues to 21. Here in Michigan anyway, according to my attorney.

Amazing.  That would change the whole debate.  I guess I haven't been keeping up with my law studies.   I always wondered why they kept telling me I couldn't take the bar exam.   :-D

Yeah, that would be the mitigating factor I was talking about. I'm wondering if it only applies to child support in the case of divorced or split up parents though.

[aileron]

[From what I understand, after a person turns 18, parents are not legally responsible for supporting them.

Apparently the law in NJ concerning emancipation of a child is complex.  A 60 year old court case Cohen v. Cohen is the precedent, and it states, "...parents would be required to pay for college when college would be considered normal for that family, the child shows scholastic aptitude, and one or both parents have the financial ability to pay tuition."

[SGOS]

I know for a fact that the child support ends at 18..........UNLESS they decide to attend college, in which case it continues to 21. Here in Michigan anyway, according to my attorney.

Amazing.  That would change the whole debate.  I guess I haven't been keeping up with my law studies.   I always wondered why they kept telling me I couldn't take the bar exam.   :-D

Yeah, that would be the mitigating factor I was talking about. I'm wondering if it only applies to child support in the case of divorced or split up parents though.

I don't know.  I know two situations, where parents refused to support their college age offspring.  One was a woman who had wasted her entire first year in college just having a party, and her parents cut her off, actually more like disowned her (if there is such a thing).  She did eventually decide to get her ass in gear and finished all the way through a masters degree on her own.  But it took a couple of extra years.

The other was a boy right out of high school whose parent's were sort of struggling but could have helped a little.  They just told the kid he would have to do it all on his own.

But these cases were in Montana, many years ago.  If there was a law that could force the issue, I don't think anyone knew about it.

[SGOS]

The fact that there are thousands or more kids being thrown out from their houses and that parents see it a normal thing to do doesn't change the bigger fact that how fucked up this culture is. A fast and effective way to create a sociopathic society.

Actually, this is not a normal situation in the US at all, which is why it made the news.  It's incredibly atypical, in fact.  Most parents do not throw their kids out, and most kids obey the rules set by their parents.  On the surface, what the reporter is describing here might be a dysfunctional family.  We can't jump to conclude that anyone is being totally unfair or totally reasonable for that matter.  The family just appears to be fucked up.  It's dysfunctional.

[The Skeletal Atheist]

Yes, I am aware of everything you said, TSA. Legality of the situation doesn't change the fact how fucked up the parents' behaviour is. She is NOT suing them to become rich. She is suing them for her college expenses to have a chance of beginning in life.

May be it is a cultural thing, because it is VERY alien to me, but you don't throw your kid out because her behaviour is shit, because you 'wish'. Children are not property of their parents. And doesn't matter how legal 18 is, she is a fucking kid. Period.

There is a reason given in the link by the parent's side, I have no idea we suddenly have to assume that it should be a lie, especially if this is that common of a situation in the US. And it is about trivial bullshit like curfew and not obeying rules. Parents are people and they act pretty fucked up most of the time. We are not 'animals', we are related to our offspring after they become legal adults and we prepare/support them so they would be able to. This is why people should need a licence to have kids. "Oh she is 18 now we are not legally responsible for looking after her, let's throw her out". Fuck them, don't breed then.

The fact that there are thousands or more kids being thrown out from their houses and that parents see it a normal thing to do doesn't change the bigger fact that how fucked up this culture is. A fast and effective way to create a sociopathic society.  

Basically she is just out of high school and her parents are throwing her out without giving her any chance to have a hold on to her life and showing the most stupid thing possible as a reason. She is told that she cannot have what most people can, because her parents do not want her and again, she is trying to get what she needs to build a life by suing them to have her college expenses not to become rich.

And you are pitching some bullshit about "oh another spoilt brat, she is 18 she should be able to stand on her own feet".

Everybody in the US who suffers from some bad situation is either 'spoilt' or 'stupid'. There is nothing wrong with the culture or how society works.

Notice that I said nothing about the morality of the situation, but rather the legality.

I agree that it is a morally right to support your child in college if you have the means to do so. Do I think you should be legally obligated to do so? Fuck no.

Did I ever say she was a spoiled brat? No. I said that her being an honor student wasn't an indication of her behavior at home.

And why shouldn't you throw someone out because their behavior is shit? My brother is bipolar, refuses to take his medication, and physically and verbally violent. He used illegal drugs in the home and was utterly disrespectful. Should my parents have let him live at home just because he was their son? Should they have risked injury and property keeping him around just because he was their son? Fuck no. There's a point where it doesn't matter what kind of connection someone has to you, you gotta toss them out for your own safety.

Do I think she was a danger to her family? No, I wouldn't make that judgement unless I knew something that indicated that she was. Do I think the parents were morally right to throw her out? No. Do I think they had the legal right to throw her out? Yes.

All I was asking for was some mitigating factor that made her case significantly different from others.

There are shitty people out there, and they have every right to be shitty people. We shouldn't force our morals upon everyone.

[Moriarty]

Well, I don't know how this relates legally but let me tell you..............As someone that has to pay $348 a month to some bitch he no longer lives, I know for a fact that the child support ends at 18..........UNLESS they decide to attend college, in which case it continues to 21. Here in Michigan anyway, according to my attorney. Never thought I'd root for my kids to be stupid...........haha j/k.

Oh wow, what a disgusting way to express a simple piece of information. You sound like that 'bitch' had 'your' kids completely out of your knowledge or involvement, but that you have to pay some money now, because you moved to live in another place.

Because it's my fault you lack a basic sense of humor and sarcasm~

Although, since we're being blunt, I would bet everything I own you would consider her a bitch if you knew what she did with the money, of which I can assure zero reaches the kids. But go ahead and act high and mighty to someone else because quite frankly I don't give a fuck what you think.

[AllPurposeAtheist]

Something overlooked, and anyone who has ever paid child support should know all to well, in certain states a parent can be required to pay for the cost of an offspring's education until the age of 26 IIRC. My friend John has paid child support for years and as long as his daughter remains in school, not just high school, he'll be required to keep paying although I'm not sure the exact age at which he's off the hook, but it's well over 18. His daughter is in no way required to remain at home with her mother.

[Shol'va]

May be it is a cultural thing, because it is VERY alien to me

I will preface my post by saying I am not disagreeing with anything you said, I am wanting to give some additional clarity from an "insider's perspective" :)
As an imigrant to the US, I can contrast and compare and can tell you that yes, to a certain degree it is a cultural thing.  Basically to make a long story short, the people here that are struggling with the notion of an 18 year old suing for financial support stems from the fact that you can, in this country, put yourself on your own two feet, financially. It is neither easy nor quick. There are countless stories of struggle in the United States, good people that have reached far in life through honesty, dedication and hard work. Immigrants who came to this country with nothing other than the shirt on their back and yet made a decent life of their own. It is that so called American spirit that people here have, socially, very ingrained in them, that sense that in life you can succeed on your own, and those that live with a sense of entitlement, such as what this story appears to suggest at first glance, is not easy to accept.

I agree that there is more to this story that meets the eye. I can only speculate at this point, but something makes me thing the daughter is coming from a highly religious household that is demanding her total submission and she simply could not go on another day under that type of thing. So in that light, I think it is reasonable to expect that her parents would in fact kick her out on what seems to us the simple notion that she is rebellious.

[Moriarty]

Something overlooked, and anyone who has ever paid child support should know all to well, in certain states a parent can be required to pay for the cost of an offspring's education until the age of 26 IIRC. My friend John has paid child support for years and as long as his daughter remains in school, not just high school, he'll be required to keep paying although I'm not sure the exact age at which he's off the hook, but it's well over 18. His daughter is in no way required to remain at home with her mother.

It wasn't overlooked, I mentioned it. It's 21 here in Michigan but then again we are more forward thinking than Ohio~ :P

[AllPurposeAtheist]

Judge denied her, but as a caring, understanding and compassionate pervert I've decided she can come stay with me and sleep in my bed at the YMCA.
See how happy I've made the little lass?

[Shol'va]

"We love our child and miss her. This is terrible. It's killing me and my wife. We have a child we want home. We're not Draconian and now we're getting hauled into court. She's demanding that we pay her bills but she doesn't want to live at home and she's saying, 'I don't want to live under your rules,' " Sean Canning said.

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.

Yep, smells like a totalitarian Christian household to me.

In addition, NJ law apparently says

In New Jersey, emancipation of a child "is a fact-sensitive analysis that looks at whether the child has moved beyond the sphere of influence and responsibility exercised by a parent and has obtained an independent status of his or her own.

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."

So easy to find out if one clicks on the source article
http://www.dailyrecord.com/article/2014 ... ck_check=1

[AllPurposeAtheist]

Not completely denied, just the initial claim... http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nationa ... -1.1710802