MIAMI (CNN) — A same-sex relationship leads to sexual battery charges for an 18-year-old high school student. The teen’s mother says she had no idea her daughter’s relationship with a 14-year-old girl would result in legal action.
Kelly Hunt Smith says it’s been a nightmare since her daughter, 18-year-old Kaitlyn Hunt, was arrested on a charge of lewd and lascivious battery of a child 12 to 16 years old.
“She’s scared to death. She can’t sleep,” Smith said.
Smith said her daughter became friends with an underage female student at Sebastian River High School in Sebastian, Fla., at the beginning of the school year.
“They began a dating relationship. Never in my mind did I consider, you know, what that really meant,” Smith said.
Kaitlyn, a former cheerleader and basketball player, was expelled from school after the arrest.
Smith hopes what she calls the “overwhelming” online support could somehow help get Kaitlyn’s charge dropped and avoid a trial.
“It’s not something that I want for my daughter. It’s not something I want for the other girl.”
Smith says the relationship was consensual. She questions why the parents of Kaitlyn’s girlfriend chose to press charges.
“You get with me and say, ‘hey, this is going on and as a mom I don’t like this. I want us to talk about this.’ I would have sat down with her. I would have sat down with our children. I would have nipped it in the bud and I would have respected her.”
The Florida State Attorney’s Office has offered Kaitlyn a plea deal, which would include two years of house arrest. Smith doesn’t feel her daughter deserves the penalty if they don’t accept and they lose her case.
“She would have a lifetime sexual offender on her record. She would not be able to, we think we all know what that means. It’s a death sentence for her, her life would be over at 18.”
