- Terrified Children Asked Oklahoma Teacher, 'Is This Really Happening?'
 Benjamin Krain/Getty Images(MOORE, Okla.) -- As the terrified tornado-whipped students of Briarwood Elementary School in Moore, Okla., cowered on their hands and knees with backpacks over their heads, tearfully pleading for their parents, they asked their teacher, "Is this really happening?"
Sheri Bittle, a first-grade teacher at Briarwood, Tuesday recounted the horror of Monday's twister that she said sounded like a train that kept barreling by as it ravaged her school.
"You could just feel the pressure just building like you were in an airplane, just the pressurization of the cabin and your ears popping and the debris starts flying and the roof falling in," Bittle told ABC News. "And everything in your classroom falling in on you."
The tornado tore a 12-mile path of destruction that killed 24 people, including nine children, and destroyed Plaza Towers Elementary School and Briarwood Elementary School in Moore. For many families, Monday ended in tears of joy after families were reunited. Others were left to wait, hoping for good news while fearing the worst.
"I actually saw the tornado coming straight toward us," Briarwood first-grade teacher Cindy Lowe told ABC News. "I knew there was no turning back then. It was coming. It wasn't something that I was watching on TV. This was really going to happen."
Teachers followed procedure, Bittle said, moving students to interior walls and the innermost area of the school. The children got down on their hands and knees, putting their hands over their heads.
"They were covering their heads with their backpacks," Bittle said. "There was so much debris falling. A roof beam fell on me and another teacher."
Bittle, who escaped major injury, lay on top of her children as the building collapsed around them, and said all the teachers would have done the same. A teacher in the next room had a table leg impale her own leg.
"I was praying," Bittle said. "I yelled it over and over for the Lord to just cover us and save us and to keep us safe. And He did. My entire class was safe and well and got delivered to their parents. The teachers at Plaza Tower didn't have that blessing."
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Seven of the nine children killed in the tornado were students at Plaza Towers Elementary School, officials said.
"I can't imagine," Bittle said through tears, "not being able to give those kids back to their parents that brought them to me that morning."
Oklahoma County Commissioner Brian Maughan confirmed to ABC News affiliate KOCO-TV Tuesday that a number of children at Plaza Towers Elementary School remain unaccounted for.
"It's just a very graphic situation for even those of us who've come obviously well after the storm has passed," he said.
"I know there's a number of dead children from that school," Oklahoma City Police spokesman Sgt. Gary Knight said.
The walls of Plaza Towers Elementary School were "pancaked," Oklahoma Lt. Gov. Todd Lamb told ABC News.
The storm tore off Plaza Towers' roof, knocked down walls and turned the playground into a mass of twisted plastic and metal. Rescue workers passed the survivors down a human chain to the triage center in the parking lot after the tornado passed directly over the school. Briarwood Elementary School received a "direct hit" from the twister and was also destroyed, with its roof and walls blown off.
"Safety is our main priority and the decisions we make are always with safety in mind," Susan Pierce, superintendent of Moore Schools, said at a news conference Tuesday. "We are in the process of learning as much as we can about what has happened and we are reviewing our emergency procedures today."
The two schools were not funded for safe rooms, according to state Director of Emergency Management Albert Ashwood.
"You have a limited amount of funds that are based on disasters you've had in the past that are used for mitigation measures and when you have limited number of funds, you set priorities for what schools you do want to ask for," Ashwood said at the news conference.
He said Briarwood and Plaza Towers were not being left out, but, rather, had not been brought forward yet for safe rooms.
"We're going to be looking to try and up that number and try and get more safe rooms in schools across the state, the entire state," Ashwood said.
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Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio
- Oklahoma Town Devastated by Tornado Razed Before in 1999
 Brett Deering/Getty Images(MOORE, Okla.) -- For the residents of Moore, Okla., the damage wrought by Monday's E-F5 tornado was all too familiar.
A storm, following a nearly identical path, struck the Oklahoma City suburb of Moore on May 3, 1999, resulting in one of the costliest tornadoes in U.S. history, leveling nearly everything in its path and killing 36 people.
The 1999 storm, churning at more than 300 miles per hour, was an E-F5 monster, leaving a path of destruction 41 miles wide and some of the fastest wind speeds for a tornado ever recorded.
Damage was estimated at more than billion.
Moore City officials estimated the likelihood of another tornado "as strong and violent" as the 1999 storm hitting their city at less than 1 percent, according to the town's website.
Wind speeds reached 190 miles per hour on Monday, cutting a swath of destruction 17 miles long, according to the National Weather Service.
A recent tornado probability study, published by Weather Decision Technologies, predicted the odds of an E-F4 or stronger tornado hitting a house at one in 10,000.
That same study put the odds of that same house getting hit twice at one in 100 trillion.
But those statistics offer little consolation to a community that finds itself standing amid the rubble of homes it just finished rebuilding.
"You should not have to go through this twice in your lifetime," one resident told ABC News amid the debris that had been her home.
Moore Mayor Glenn Lewis, who was also mayor during the 1999 twister, said the city had learned from that experience about how to rebuild:
"We've already started printing the street signs. It took 61 days to clean up after the 1999 tornado. We had a lot of help then. We've got a lot of help now."
Twenty-four people, seven of whom were children, were killed in Monday's twister, according to the Oklahoma medical examiner.
Authorities do not know how many people remain missing.
Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio
- Army General Suspended of Command for Adultery Investigation
 PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — The Army has suspended the one-star commanding general at Fort Jackson, S.C., for alleged misconduct involving adultery and an unspecified physical altercation.
An Army official tells ABC News that the case does not involve sexual assault.
Brig. Gen. Bryan T. Roberts was suspended Tuesday as Commanding General, U.S. Army Training Center and Fort Jackson, according to a statement from Army Training and Doctrine Command. The post, located in Columbia, S.C., is the largest of the five facilities the Army uses for basic training of new soldiers.
Roberts was suspended by the Commander of U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command Gen. Robert W. Cone, due to allegations of misconduct that "include adultery and a physical altercation,” which the statement said “are being thoroughly investigated.” Adultery is a crime under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
“The information at this time does not indicate this is a matter of sexual assault,” an Army official told ABC News.
No details were provided about the alleged physical altercation for which Roberts is being investigated.
Brig. Gen. Peggy C. Combs will serve as the interim commander pending the results of the investigation. Coombs was previously the commandant of the Army Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear School, Fort Leonard Wood, Mo.
The Army’s Criminal Investigation Command is investigating the case and had gathered enough preliminary evidence for Cone to suspend Roberts from his command, Army Training and Doctrine Command spokesman Harvey Perritt said.
“[The] Army holds all soldiers regardless of rank or position accountable for their actions,” Perritt said.
Investigators are questioning witnesses and gathering evidence in the case, which could last several weeks or months, he said.
Roberts has been suspended from command pending the results of the investigation; he could be relieved of command of the post depending on what the investigation concludes. Roberts has been in command of the post since April 2012.
Another Army one-star general is currently on trial for adultery at Fort Bragg, N.C. Last year Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Sinclair was serving in Afghanistan as a deputy commanding general of the 82nd Airborne Division when he was accused of engaging in adultery and sexual assault. Sinclair faces life in prison if convicted on the sexual assault charge.
Over the past two weeks, sexual assault in the military became a hot-button issue in Washington after two sexual assault prevention officers found themselves involved in incidents of sexual assault.
Two weeks ago the Air Force lieutenant colonel who ran the Air Force’s office of sexual assault and prevention was arrested for allegedly groping a woman, and last week an Army sergeant who served as a sexual assault prevention coordinator at Fort Hood, Texas, was removed from his post while he was investigated for alleged sexual assault.
The incidents led Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel to order the retraining and rescreening of the 45,000 sexual assault prevention officers and military recruiters.
Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio
- Jodi Arias Jury Begins Death Penalty Deliberations
 ABC News(PHOENIX) -- "Two wrongs do not make a right," Jodi Arias' defense attorney said Tuesday as she asked the jury to spare Arias the death penalty for killing her ex-boyfriend, Travis Alexander.
"While what she did was absolutely horrible, you have convicted her of that," attorney Jennifer Willmott said. "Jodi took Travis away. She took him away from his family and from this world. But two wrongs do not make a right. Jodi can still contribute to this world. Her life still has value and you have a choice."
The jury began deliberating Tuesday evening whether Arias should be sentenced to death after Willmott made the closing statement for Arias in the death penalty phase of her murder trial.
Earlier this month, Arias, 32, was convicted of murdering Alexander in June 2008.
During the penalty phase, the burden was on the defense to prove mitigating factors, or aspects of Arias' life that proved she should be sentenced with leniency.
Prosecutor Juan Martinez has argued that the murder was especially cruel and warranted the death penalty, noting that Arias stabbed Alexander, slashed his throat and shot him in the head.
On Tuesday, Willmott asked the jury to keep in mind that Arias had no prior criminal record, was only 27 when she killed Alexander and, in all other areas of her life, was a good person.
She had stable relationship with ex-boyfriends with whom she remained friends after breakups, she was a good friend, a talented artist and had every intention to spend her life behind bars trying to contribute to society if she were given the chance, Willmott said.
"People are far better than their worst deed, and Jodi Arias is a far better person than her very worst deed," Willmott said. "There is so much mitigation in this case. There are so many reasons that you can find to be merciful, that you on your own can find to call for life in prison instead of execution."
Martinez, in his closing argument, dismissed Willmott's claims about Arias's alleged mitigating factors. He said that the facts mentioned by the defense -- that Arias had artistic talent, was young and had a clean criminal background -- were not enough to mitigate the way she killed Alexander in 2008.
"Being an artist is a mitigating factor? What does that have to do with the crime?" he asked incredulously. "It shows [the defense's arguments] are not worth considering when you look at the horrific nature of the crime. Nothing they have presented is a mitigating circumstance. Are any of them sufficiently substantial to call for leniency when you take a look at what this individual did?"
"The only thing you can do, based on the mitigating circumstances, is to return a verdict of death," Martinez said.
In her rebuttal, Willmott again went through her arguments and told the jury that it must decide the answer to a single question.
"The simple question before you is: Do you kill her? That's the question," Willmott said. "She has done something very bad. She has. You have convicted her of that. You have told her she is guilty of first degree murder for that. But the question is now: Do you kill her?"
Before closing arguments began, Arias was also given her last opportunity to speak directly to the jury.
Arias clicked through a photo slideshow, quoted Dickens and used props as she begged them to spare her life for her family's sake.
Dressed in all black and wearing glasses, Arias told the jury that, though she previously told reporters and others that she would prefer the death penalty, she no longer felt that way.
"I have made statements that I would prefer death, but I lacked perspective," Arias told the jurors.
"To me, life in prison was the most unappealing outcome I could think of," she said. "I thought I'd rather die."
"But as I stand here now, I can't ask you to sentence me to death because of them," she added, pointing in the direction of her family.
"Either way, I'm going to spend the rest of my life in prison," she said. "It will either be shortened or not. If it is shortened, the people that will be hurt the most will be my family. Please don't do that to them. I've already hurt them so much, and I want everyone's pain to stop."
She also referred to the family members of Alexander, who spoke last week to the jury during victim impact statements.
"I never meant to cause them so much pain," she said, pointing to Alexander's family.
Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio
- Police: Susan Powell's Husband, Brother-in-Law 'Directly Involved in Her Disappearance'
 Lui Kit Wong-Pool/Getty Images(SALT LAKE CITY) -- Questions still surround the 2009 disappearance of Utah mother Susan Powell ever since the suicides of her husband, Josh Powell, and brother-in-law, Michael Powell, who authorities believe were "directly involved in her disappearance."
Although the brothers were considered persons of interest in her disappearance, there was never enough evidence to charge either one of them, said West Valley City Deputy Police Chief Mike Powell. The evidence against them was "circumstantial," he told ABC News.
Despite the scarcity of information to go on -- no crime scene, no body -- police said they were still working leads to find out what happened to Susan Powell.
"It's paramount that people understand that it's not a closed case," the deputy police chief told ABC News. "This is still an open investigation, and we will continue to pursue any information provided to us actively and with just as much vigor."
Some hope lies in Steven Powell, Susan Powell's father-in-law, who police believe might know something about her disappearance. Convicted on charges of voyeurism and child pornography, Steven Powell is currently in custody at Monroe Corrections Center in Monroe, Wash.
While Steven Powell was not directly involved in Susan's disappearance, the deputy police chief said, "we firmly believe that Steven knows something."
"Susan is still missing," he said. "If Steven Powell has any information or indication that he knows where or what may have happened, that would be important for us to have."
"Whether or not we're able to obtain that, therein lies the difficulty," he told ABC News.
Susan Powell, 28, was last seen in December 2009 at the Utah home she shared with her husband and their two young sons. Her husband told authorities that he had taken an impromptu midnight camping trip with the boys -- in the midst of a winter storm -- the night his wife vanished.
Josh Powell, 36, said that he returned home to find his wife gone and continued to state that his wife had left on her own.
Susan Powell's disappearance triggered a massive investigation that focused on her husband, who killed himself and his two sons in a fiery explosion at his home in Graham, Wash., in February 2012.
Authorities then turned their attention to her husband's brother, Michael Powell, 30, when they learned he had been made the heir to his brother's estate, which included the life insurance policies on Josh, his sons, and Susan that Josh had taken out.
Deputy Police Chief Powell said that while authorities looked at Michael Powell when Susan Powell was first reported missing, "there wasn't anything that jumped out initially" about him.
It wasn't until the summer of 2011, nearly two and a half years after Susan Powell had disappeared, that police learned that Michael Powell had a car in a salvage yard in Pendleton, Ore. He had allegedly driven from Utah to Oregon in July, but the car broke down outside the city, where it was towed and left in the yard.
"We began to look at Michael Powell much more closely at that point," the deputy police chief said.
Police brought cadaver dogs to the place where Michael Powell's car had been impounded. While the car had not been crushed, according to the deputy police chief, only the frame and the structure of the vehicle remained.
"The dogs did indicate the odor of human decomposition [in the car]," said Deputy Police Chief Powell. "We were able to extract a minimal amount of DNA from the trunk of that vehicle."
While investigators could not obtain "a full profile" from the sample, they concluded the DNA did not match the profile of Susan Powell. Still, it made authorities interested in her husband's brother.
As the investigation progressed, Powell said police found a significant amount of communication between Josh and Michael Powell that had been encrypted via the Internet.
In February, a year after his brother killed himself and his sons, Michael Powell committed suicide by jumping from a Minneapolis parking garage.
"We looked into him as completely and thoroughly as we possibly could," Deputy Police Chief Powell said. "I can tell you that he was involved in some capacity in the disappearance of Susan. There is a high probability that he had a direct involvement."
Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio
- Jodi Arias to Donate Hair, Recycle If Allowed to Live
 ABC News(PHOENIX) -- In her final words to jurors Tuesday before they decide her punishment for murder, Jodi Arias clicked through a photo slideshow, quoted Dickens and used props as she begged them to spare her life for her family's sake.
Arias, 32, was convicted earlier this month of murdering her ex-boyfriend, Travis Alexander, in 2008. The prosecution has argued that the murder was particularly cruel and warrants the death penalty, noting that Arias stabbed Alexander, slashed his throat, and shot him in the head.
Arias' attorneys presented no witnesses to testify on her behalf this week in the "mitigating phase" of the trial, in which they asked the jury to sentence her with leniency.
The jury will begin deliberating Tuesday whether to sentence Arias to life in prison or the death penalty.
Dressed in all black and wearing glasses, Arias told the jury that, though she previously said to reporters and others that she would prefer the death penalty, she no longer felt that way.
"I have made statements that I would prefer death, but I lacked perspective," Arias told the jurors.
"To me, life in prison was the most unappealing outcome I could think of," she said. "I thought I'd rather die.
"But as I stand here now, I can't ask you to sentence me to death because of them," she added, pointing in the direction of her family.
"Either way, I'm going to spend rest of my life in prison," she said. "It will either be shortened or not. If it is shortened, the people that will be hurt the most will be my family. Please don't do that to them. I've already hurt them so much, and I want everyone's pain to stop."
Arias used most of her allocution statement to try to show the jury details of her life before the murder, clicking through a slideshow of photos from her childhood, family life and relationships with ex-boyfriends.
"When I was little, my mom took a lot of pictures of me. I was the first child," she said.
"Here I am with Bobby, in our dirty little house," she added. "We didn't have power or heat. In the winter we could see our breath. My parents didn't support this relationship. I'm reminded of that Charles Dickens quote, 'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.'"
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Arias attempted to convince the jury to send her to prison so she would have an opportunity to contribute to society. She said that since she has been under arrest, she has come up with ways to be useful in jail, such as donating her hair to Locks of Love and coming up with a plan for recycling at the local jail.
"If I'm allowed to live in prison, I will continue to donate for the rest of my life," Arias said, noting that she has donated her hair three times to the charity.
"If I get permission, I could start a recycling program for the huge loads of waste taken to the landfill," she added. "It could create new jobs and have a far-reaching impact on the planet."
Arias showed the jury her artwork, including paintings of Elvis and her niece, as part of her slideshow, and held up a t-shirt with the word "survivor" on it that she designed and is selling, noting that profits of the sale of the t-shirt are going to domestic violence victims.
"I'm supporting this cause because it's very, very important to me. Some people do not believe I'm a victim of domestic abuse but that's OK," she said. "I've never been to prison but I think I could find other ways to contribute there."
Arias said that if she were sentenced to life in prison, she hoped to start a book club and help teach fellow inmates how to read.
"You've heard before I'm an artist. I'll never create another oil painting, but these are some of my paintings," she said.
Clicking through to the next slide, she added, "My family and I have a lot of memories. We won't be creating any more of these together."
She also referred to the family members of Alexander, who spoke last week to the jury during victim impact statements.
"I never meant to cause them so much pain," she said, pointing to Alexander's family.
The same jury that convicted Arias will decide her punishment.
Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio
- Oklahoma Tornado Deaths Revised Down to 24, Including 9 Children
 iStockphoto/Thinkstock(MOORE, Okla.) -- First responders are in a race against time in the search for any survivors of a devastating tornado that ripped through Moore, Okla., while the medical examiner's office has revised the death toll from 51 to 24, including nine children.
Oklahoma medical examiner spokeswoman Amy Elliot said Tuesday morning that she believes some victims were counted twice in the early chaos of the storm. The original death toll included 20 children.
Two elementary schools were in the path of Monday's tornado, which the National Weather Service gave a preliminary rating of at least EF-4, meaning churning wind speeds of up to 200 mph.
Oklahoma City police spokesman Sgt. Gary Knight said seven of the young victims were from Plaza Towers Elementary School.
Moore Mayor Glenn Lewis and National Guard members told ABC News the search-and-rescue operation at the school is now a body-recovery effort.
"The walls were just pancaked, absolutely flattened and the students were just grouped together," Lt. Gov. Todd Lamb told ABC News.
Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin tweeted late Monday night that she visited with search crews at the elementary school. "Appreciate their hard work and tireless dedication," she tweeted.
Fallin has also deployed 80 National Guard members to help with search-and-rescue efforts throughout the city.
Authorities said Briarwood Elementary School in Moore received a "direct hit" from the storm and was also destroyed, with its roof and walls blown off.
A total of 242 patients, including 58 children, were treated at hospitals. Many patients have been treated and discharged while others have been transferred among hospitals.
Kelly Wells, spokeswoman for Norman Regional Health System, which oversees three hospitals in Oklahoma, said lacerations, broken bones, head and neck injuries were the most common.
Moore Medical Center, the only hospital in Moore, sustained major damage and was evacuating all its patients to other hospitals.
Betsy Randolph of the State Highway Patrol asked people not involved in search-and-rescue operations to stay off the roads so first responders can do their job.
President Obama signed a disaster declaration in Oklahoma and ordered federal aid to supplement state and local recovery efforts in the area affected by severe storms and tornadoes.
The first tornado warning went out around 2:40 p.m. local time and just 16 minutes later a tornado tore a 12-mile gash in Oklahoma from Newcastle to Oklahoma City. Frantic groups of rescuers could be seen digging through debris within minutes after the tornado blew by.
Moore, a community of 41,000 people about 10 miles south of Oklahoma City, saw homes wiped off their foundations and cars tossed like toys on top of nearby buildings. Block after block lay in ruins, reduced to smoking piles of wood and brick.
The weather service estimated that the tornado was at least a half-mile wide and says it could have been on the ground for as long as 40 minutes.
As Moore continues to sift through rubble for survivors, millions across the Midwest are once again under the threat of tornadoes. People in northeast Texas all the way to southwest Arkansas have a 10 percent chance of seeing a twister later Tuesday.
Millions of people from San Antonio, Texas, all the way to Michigan could see damaging hail and even a chance of isolated tornadoes.
More than 50 tornadoes ravaged the Midwest this weekend, killing a 79-year-old man in Shawnee, Okla.
Monday's devastation in Oklahoma came almost exactly two years after an enormous twister ripped through the city of Joplin, Mo., killing 158 people and injuring hundreds more.
Moore was the site of one of the most destructive tornadoes in U.S. history. An EF-5 tornado ripped through the Oklahoma City-area May 3, 1999, killing 42 people.
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Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio
- Limited Train Service Resumes After Connecticut Derailment
 iStockphoto/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- Limited rail service resumes Tuesday afternoon between New York and Bridgeport, Conn., after two trains derailed last week.
Limited Amtrak and Metro-North commuter rail service resumes between New York and New Haven and full service is expected to resume Wednesday.
One of two tracks damaged when the trains sideswiped one another and derailed four days ago has been rebuilt and subjected to rigorous testing.
Passengers should still expect delays as trains will run slower on the new sections of the track.
Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio
- Man Arrested with Loaded Gun at JFK Airport
 TSA(NEW YORK) -- A New York man was arrested Tuesday at John F. Kennedy International Airport after a loaded gun was found in his luggage.
It's the second time in four days a passenger at JFK has been spotted with a loaded gun in his carry-on.
The passenger was flying to Hawaii when his .22 caliber handgun was confiscated.
It followed a San Francisco-bound passenger on Saturday caught with a .40 caliber gun and two magazines each loaded with three rounds of ammunition.
Firearms are only allowed in checked baggage and only if they're properly declared.
Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio
- Florida Cheerleader Denies Felony Charge for Lesbian Relationship
 A website created to support Florida high school teen Kaitlyn Hunt is shown in this May 21, 2013 photo. (Lawrence Lai/ABC News)(SEBASTIAN, Fla.) -- A Florida high school senior was expelled from school and is facing felony charges for a sexual relationship she allegedly had with a fellow girls' basketball teammate who is three years younger.
Kaitlyn Hunt, a cheerleader and basketball player at Sebastian River High School, is facing two counts of felony lewd and lascivious conduct on a child ages 12 to 14 for her alleged relationship with a freshman classmate.
She has denied the charges, which were filed earlier this year in Indian River County.
The girls were 18 and 14 when they became sexually involved, according to an arrest affidavit by the county Sheriff's Department. The girls' basketball coach at the high school found out about the relationship, told the younger girl's mother, who also works as a coach, and kicked Hunt off the team, according to Hunt's family.
The younger girl's parents then contacted police, according to the Hunt family.
The police set up a phone sting operation in which the 14-year-old called Hunt and asked her details about their relationship, according to the affidavit. Police then arrested Hunt in February, based on the details the girls discussed on the phone, according to the document. She was charged and spent 24 hours in jail before posting bond.
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The Sheriff's Department did not return calls for comment. The Florida State Attorney for the 19th Judicial District Office, which oversees Indian River County, has also not responded to a request for comment.
Hunt's family says the 14-year-old student's parents are angry that their daughter was in a same-sex relationship, and decided to go to police, according to Andrew Gay, Hunt's uncle and the family spokesman.
"Our understanding from the other family is the reason they initially pursued this case is because they're unhappy with their daughter being in a same-sex relationship," he said. "It would appear to be the case if Kate were a male this wouldn't be happening."
The freshman's parents also twice asked a judge to provide a court order banning Hunt from attending Sebastian River, but the petition was denied, Gay said. The school board then expelled Hunt from the school, and she has been attending an alternative high school, he added.
The Indian River School District declined to comment on the case except to say that it followed the district's student code of conduct in dealing with the situation.
The case has sparked outrage in the Indian River community and online, where petitions and a "Free Kate" Facebook page have gained more than 20,000 followers, which has fueled the recent interest.
"Our family's perspective on this is that Kaitlyn made a poor choice, but this is something that could have been dealt with between families," Gay said. "But they refused to talk. They've been very aggressive. I understand feeling like you need to protect your child, but I don't understand ruining another child's life."
He said the 14-year-old has told police she was in the relationship voluntarily, but the girl's parents are pursuing the action. The younger student's identity has not been released by police or the Hunt family.
Gay said the family understands that the significant age difference between the girls led to the legal problems, but said it points to a wider, national problem of seniors in high school facing jail time for becoming involved with freshmen.
"Just because you turn eighteen doesn't mean you're the wisest person on earth," he said. "This happens all the time with males. It's a national tragedy that seniors in high school are going to jail for dating freshmen. If they shouldn't be intermingling with one another, then they shouldn't be in the same school."
Hunt has pleaded not guilty to the charges, but has been offered a plea deal by the prosecutor's office that she must decide whether to accept by Friday, according to Gay.
The prosecutor's office offered Hunt the chance to avoid jail time if she pleads guilty to felony child abuse, he said.
"She's hanging in there, but it's been rough," Gay said. "She's spent three years doing medical training in high school and had plans to start college and a nursing program.
"A felony convict can't become a nurse, so that would ruin her plan for her entire life."
Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio
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