Remember the girl who sued her parents for college tuition?

GuideMe

Active Member
Under the same token, my difficult child got a drinking ticket his freshman year, dropped classes, floundered - barely earning a 2.0, became totally disrespectful to my husband and me and broke my heart. I'

Now if a child flunks at a college the first year, then a parent should be exempt from paying any further college tuition and the child should then have to pay the parent back for the first year that the parents paid for. This needs to be written in the law that they have.
 
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Signorina

Guest
Since when does a STEP-parent's income count for anything? Step parents have no rights, no responsibilities. That part really confuses me.

It's part of the FAFSA calculations - and required on the form. The FAFSA is our federal financial aid application - required of any student seeking financial aid, government backed student loans - even students receiving merit scholarships that aren't income based. Kids here must include their parent and step parents detailed financial information up for consideration. Until the "child" is age 26.

At the end of the form- you get an "expected parental contribution" (which is an unreasonably high amount of money IME) The judge based the amount he awarded at least partially on the FAFSA results from what I understand.
 

donna723

Well-Known Member
And where did this girl, the poor student who was supposedly struggling financially, get the money to pay for all those lawyers to file a lawsuit against her parents?
 
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Signorina

Guest
Now if a child flunks at a college the first year, then a parent should be exempt from paying any further college tuition and the child should then have to pay the parent back for the first year that the parents paid for. This needs to be written in the law that they have.

No - the law needs to stipulate that is it the divorced parent's ultimate decision to decide to pay or not to pay for their child's education beyond High School. The same way it applies to married parents. This legislation was never intended to be used between offspring and their parents.
 

Tanya M

Living with an attitude of gratitude
Staff member
This is a prime example of the "I'm entitled" mentality. If she fails her courses does she have to pay them back??

I agree with MWM.
If it were me, if I had the money to pay and was ordered to, I'd pay the college TO the college and not send a dime for lodging, food, clothes or anything else to daughter.
 

CrazyinVA

Well-Known Member
Staff member
Interesting that this story has stirred up so much contention.

I imagine the law was on the side of the child in this case, and she took advantage of that. I haven't read every article on this so I don't know all sides.. but I do have reasonable faith in our justice system (most of the time); sometimes a judge's hands are tied because of a legal technicality.

However, having read so many stories on these boards about parents who are trying to set boundaries for their adult children, and having dealt with some of it myself, the bottom line for me was the precedent it sets for kids suing their parents when they don't get what they want. I think of the parents who have to go through a formal eviction process to get their "deadbeat" kid out of the hous. Kids today are entitled enough, without a judge adding fuel to that fire.

It's also a shame that grandparents would support their grandchild in suing their parents - what message are they sending? That makes me saddest of all, I think.
 

Lil

Well-Known Member
At the end of the form- you get an "expected parental contribution" (which is an unreasonably high amount of money IME) The judge based the amount he awarded at least partially on the FAFSA results from what I understand.

Yeah its high! I don't remember what our "contribution" was on the fafsa, but it was a heck of a lot more that the $10k we did contribute, and we had to borrow that!


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BusynMember

Well-Known Member
A family would have to have a lot of money to end up in this situation. Sounds like this family may actually be more dysfunctional than mine...lol. Can you imagine the dynamics between the grandparents and parents and now the kid and her parents? They must be at war...lol. Oh, how this family will fight and separate and suffer and cry.There are some things that you never forget and I would think this is one of them.

Anyhow, I remember a teen year old boy who wanted to divorce his parents. I forgot why.Anyone remember that case? I don't recall who won or why he did it.

See? There are worse difficult children than ours.
 

nlj

Well-Known Member
Just caught up with this thread.

Unbelievable!

Would never happen in the UK (although we have plenty of our own stupid laws no doubt - most designed for the UK legal system to earn itself plenty of money).
 
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