FLORIDA: 18 Year-Old Girl Arrested & Expelled For Sex With 15 Year-Old Girl

Kaitlyn Hunt, 18, has been arrested and charged with sexual battery for the consensual relationship she had with a 15 year-old female fellow classmate that began when she was 17. The charges were brought after the younger girl's parents filed a complaint with the police after Hunt turned 18.  Hunt has also been expelled from her Florida high school.

Kelley Hunt Smith said it's been a nightmare since her daughter, 18-year-old Kaitlyn Hunt, was arrested on a charge of "lewd and lascivious battery of a child 12 to 16 years old." "She's scared to death, she can't sleep," said Smith, from her and Kaitlyn's home on Sunday night. Smith said Kaitlyn became friends with an underaged female student at Sebastian River High School at the beginning of the school year.  "They began a dating relationship," Smith recalled. "Never in my mind did I consider what that meant." Kaitlyn, a former cheerleader and basketball player, was expelled from school after the arrest. Smith hopes what she calls the "overwhelming" online support could somehow help get Kaitlyn's charge dropped. Their family's "Free Kate" Facebook page has more than 14,000 members, and their change.org petition has more than 40,000 signatures.

West Palm Beach's WPTV reports that prosecutors have offered Hunt a plea deal which includes two years of house arrest. Florida's age of consent is 18, but "close age" relationships are exempt if the older party is under 24 and the younger is 16 or older.  Should she go to trial and lose, Hunt faces up to 15 years in prison and could be forever branded as a sexual predator.

Hunt's mother writes on the Change.org petition site:

Kailtyn’s girlfriend’s parents are pressing charges because they are against the same-sex relationship, even though their daughter has stated that this is a consensual relationship. The two girls began dating while Kaitlyn was 17 but her girlfriend’s parents blamed Kailtyn for their daughter’s homosexuality. They waited until after Kaitlyn turned 18 and went to the police to have charges brought against her.

The "Free Kate" Facebook page is here.