Cheerleader Rachel Canning, the 18-year old New Jersey teen who sued her parents for financial support after she says she was kicked out, has moved back home, according to the family’s lawyer.
Canning asked a judge to order her parents, Sean and Elizabeth, to pay $650 a week for support and to take responsibility for her school tuition; she also didn’t want to be emancipated so that her parents would be legally bound to help her. However, Judge Peter Bogaard denied her requests, saying he didn’t want the case to become the norm.
“We have to ask ourselves, do we want to establish a precedent where parents live in constant fear of enforcing the basic rules of the house,” he said. “If they set a rule a child doesn’t like, the child can move out, move in with another family, seek child support, cars, cell phone and a few hundred grand to go to college. Are we going to open the gates for 12-year-olds to sue for an Xbox? For 13-year-olds to sue for an iPhone? We should be mindful of a potentially slippery slope.”
According to Angelo Sarno, the Canning’s attorney, Rachel’s return is not contingent upon any financial agreement. She’s been staying with a friend for weeks and the friend’s father, John Inglesino, reportedly encouraged the lawsuit and even paid for Rachel’s legal fees. The Cannings say they didn’t kick Rachel out of their home, but rather told her she had to abide by their rules if she was going to stay there. They say she left on her own.
“We love our child and miss her,” Mr Canning said the day before the hearing. “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’.”
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