A 21-year-old woman, Caitlyn Ricci, who’s already been to court once to get her parents to pay her college tuition is now back before the judge, arguing her mom and dad — Michael Ricci and Maura McGarvey — have failed to follow through and cough up the money.
The case previously made national headlines and sent media pundits debating a core question: Are parents in America now going to be legally mandated to pay for their children’s college?
In Ms. Ricci’s case, that answer was yes. The judge ruled months ago that her parents would have to pay $906 in tuition for her Rowan College studies, despite the fact that Mr. Ricci and Ms. McGarvey argued their daughter hasn’t spoken to them in some time and actually moved out to live with her grandmother.
In October, Ms. Ricci sued her parents again, this time for $16,000 for tuition to Temple University, Yahoo News reported. And shortly after, a judge ruled once again in her favor.
On that count, Mr. Ricci and Ms. McGarvey are planning an appeal, Yahoo reported.
Ms. Ricci reported to the court just recently that her parents haven’t paid anything, and a judge ruled this week that they have until the end of the year to start providing the tuition, Yahoo reported.
Her parents maintain they’re not paying, no matter what the judge says.
“That’s fine,” Mr. Ricci told WPVI-TV. “They can hold me in contempt of court. They can do whatever they want. I’m not going to pay. I’m not going to give them any money until my daughter has a relationship with me, and we start to heal our family.”
The parents also say the only reason they declined to pay their daughter’s tuition is that she refused to abide by house rules.
In November, Ms. McGarvey wrote on her blog that she had set strict rules for her daughter to live at home.
“This plan included a full-time job, household chores, a curfew and for her to register for three summer classes,” she wrote, Yahoo found. “The only part of our plan that she had a problem with was the three summer classes. She chose to move out of my house instead of following the rules we established. She packed her things and moved into her paternal grandparents’ house.”
Andrew Rochester, Ms. Ricci’s attorney, said it was her mother who actually threw her out of the house — that Ms. Ricci didn’t voluntarily leave.
But Ms. McGarvey said her daughter was acting spoiled, and that she could come home any time she wants — if she only abides by the rules.
“I was very clear with Caitlyn about what [moving out] would mean for her,” she wrote in her blog, Yahoo reported. “Her father would no longer be required to pay child support, I would no longer have the money to help her pay for college, etc. More than once, I told her that she could come home. She didn’t want to. She wanted to live without any rules, with basically no contact with either of her parents or their families, and she wanted her father and I to pay for it. Within a few months of living at her grandparents, Caitlyn retained a lawyer and sued her father and me for college contribution (and a new car).”
Ms. McGarvey, an English teacher, and Mr. Ricci, a high school basketball coach, are divorced and remarried to others.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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