PALM BAY, Fla. -- A father says a case of love versus the law has left his daughter, a high school student, facing criminal charges that could land her in prison and require her to register as a sex offender.
Steven Hunt and tens of thousands of online supporters are asking prosecutors to drop the case against Hunt's daughter. Eighteen-year-old Kaitlyn Hunt was arrested in February related to what her father said was a consensual same-sex relationship with another student who was 14. A Facebook group created to support Kaitlyn asks people to write to their legislators to change laws to protect high school peers from prosecution in similar cases.
"Kaitlyn was a highly respected student at Florida's Sebastian River High School with good grades and participation in cheerleading, basketball and chorus," Hunt, of Palm Bay, wrote in the petition on Change.org. "She was even voted 'most school spirit.' Now she's been expelled from school and is facing serious felonies — all because she is in love."
Hunt wants prosecutors in Indian River County to drop the two charges filed against his daughter in February. A rainbow-colored "Stop the hate, free Kate" page on the online petition site Change.org had more than 56,500 supporters calling for prosecutors to drop the charges Monday afternoon, and a similar "Free Kate" Facebook group page had more than 21,000 members.
"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," a statement on the Facebook page reads.
The case started in February, but has since garnered national attention for what some media portray as a gay rights issue. In the online petition, Hunt claims his daughter's girlfriend's parents went to police because they blamed Kaitlyn for their child's homosexuality.
That doesn't change the case for the Indian River County Sheriff's Office.
"If this was an 18-year-old male and that was a 14-year-old girl, it would have been prosecuted the same way," Indian River County Sheriff Deryl Loar said during a Monday news conference.