Rachel Canning, a New Jersey honor student, has filed a lawsuit against her parents, requesting that they pay her college tuition. The Morris Catholic High School student claims that she was thrown out of the house when she turned 18, but her father says Canning voluntarily left.
According to the Parsippany Daily Record, Canning’s lawyer will ask a judge to force her parents, Sean and Elizabeth Canning, to pay the $5,306 owed to Morris Catholic; Canning’s living expenses; and start a college fund for her daughter to attend one of the schools she’s been accepted to. Canning wants the judge to find that she is non-emancipated and is still dependent on her parents.
Canning is currently living with a friend, whose father is former Morris County Freeholder John Inglesino. He is currently funding the lawsuit and paying Canning’s lawyer. However, the lawsuit asks that Canning’s parents also pay $12,597 in legal expenses.
Sean Canning, the current Mount Olive township administrator, said that his daughter left in October on her own. He believes that his daughter is being “enabled” by people who might mean well, but don’t know all the facts.
“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,” Sean Canning told the Daily Record, notes NBC New York. “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.’”
A hearing is scheduled for Tuesday.