Subscribe
The Daily Grind Video
CLOSE

An 18-year-old student who left her parents house because “she didn’t want to obey their rules” is trying to turn the tables on mom and dad.

Unfortunately for her, she just lost her first battle in court against her parents. A New Jersey judge denied Rachel Canning’s request for immediate financial assistance from the parents. Canning is suing the two for financial support and college tuition, claiming that she is unable to support herself financially.

According to CNN, the lawsuit asks that her parents pay the remaining tuition for her last semester at her private high school, pay her current living and transportation expenses, commit to paying her college tuition and pay her legal fees for the suit she filed against her parents.

Canning, an honor student, claims her parents forced her out of the house by dolling out emotional and psychological abuse. She even alleged that her mother called her “fat” and “porky” and that her father threatened to beat her.

“I have been subjected to severe verbal and physical abuse by my mother and father,” Canning wrote in a court certification. “I am not willingly and voluntarily leaving a reasonable situation at home to make my own decisions. I had to leave to end the abuse.”

But Canning’s parents, Sean and Elizabeth Canning, told a different story.

“We were always her support team, cheering her on or defending her whenever she had a problem,” wrote Elizabeth Canning in a court certification. She claims that her daughter was never forced out of the family’s home, but rather “took it upon herself to run away so that she could live her life without any parental supervision and without any rules.”

Court documents filed by her parents’ attorney also reveal that Canning was suspended from school for truancy last October.

Her parents told the teen that she could no longer see her boyfriend, who was also suspended from school. Car and phone privileges were also taken away. Once she learned of the punishment, Canning cut school again and then decided to run away, her father said in court documents.

Canning left her parents’ home at the end of last October. She spent two nights at her boyfriend’s home, then moved into the home of her friend in a nearby town, where she has been staying ever since.

After leaving home, her parents notified Morris Catholic High School that they would no longer pay for their daughter’s tuition, the documents state.

“They stopped paying my high school tuition to punish the school and me, and have redirected my college fund indicating their refusal to afford me an education,” Rachel Canning stated in court documents.

But her parents are confused and distraught.

“We’re being sued by our child. I’m dumbfounded. So is my wife. So are my other daughters,” he said. “Living in our house, there’s very few things. There’s minor chores, there’s curfews. When I say curfew, it’s usually after 11 o’clock at night.”

Sean Canning wrote in court documents that the Inglesinos, for taking in his daughter, had “enabled the situation to an absurd level. Under the guise of good intentions, they have arrogantly placed themselves in our stead and operated under the belief that their parenting style is superior to our own.”

Yikes, this could get messy. Who are you siding with? Sound off below:

SOURCE: CNN | VIDEO SOURCE: News, Inc.