Truesee's Daily Wonder

In some ways, Anastasia Megan is a typical 13-year-old girl. She enjoys riding her horse on her family's rural Sumter County spread. She loves to scuba dive, kayak and listen to rock music, including Pink Floyd. 

But she is not a typical teenager. The home-schooled student has nearly completed her high-school education, and her parents, both retired engineers, say they have reached their limit in continuing to challenge her academically. They recently applied for their daughter to take dual-enrollment courses at nearby Lake-Sumter Community College in Leesburg.

But the college gave a firm thumbs down, saying Anastasia — who also goes by Annie — is not ready to sit side by side with older students, most of them adults. Undeterred, her parents have filed an age-discrimination complaint against the college with the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights.

"If she meets all the qualifications but for her age, then why not let her in?" asked her mother, Louise Racine. "What's the worst that can happen, honestly? If a child does pass these tests, don't you think they should be allowed to continue their education to the next level and continue to let their minds grow?"

College President Charles Mojock would not comment specifically on Annie's situation. However, he said Lake-Sumter is an open campus, unlike a gated high school or home-school environment and that could present safety issues for especially young students.

"Anyone basically can walk onto our campus," Mojock said. "So we've got a very different environment [than a high school]. … And we have many adult students having adult conversations on adult topics and that may or may not be suitable for some young students."

Annie's parents point out their daughter has traveled the world with them and her siblings — she is one of triplets — and is comfortable in adult settings. Her father, John Megan, offered to accompany Annie to classes. When college officials again said no, her father said he would even enroll in his daughter's classes. College officials still would not bend.

"We were told that parents could not be allowed to do that because it could be disruptive," Megan said.

Safety issues

Richard Scott, vice president of business affairs, said having a parent tag along with a young student presents problems, including faculty members who could hesitate giving a bad grade or discipline to a student, fearing pressure from the parent.

Annie's parents, however, argue that their daughter is well-suited for the college environment. The teenager recently finished online college courses in Spanish, macroeconomics and U.S. government, scoring A's in the final exams in April. She also scored far above average in three necessary college-placement tests in November in reading comprehension, sentence skills and algebra required for dual-enrollment high-school students. She was given the tests when she applied to attend Lake-Sumter.

Regardless, Scott said, the college looks at a broad array of qualifications besides high test scores before accepting students, including those applying for dual-enrollment.

In recent years, Scott said, Lake-Sumter college has seen an increasing number of young applicants, including some as young as 8 or 9 years old. That led the college's board of trustees in April to enact a minimum-age requirement of 15.

Annie's parents hope to trump the new age requirement and are awaiting a decision by a federal Department of Education investigator. An attempt at mediation in March ended in a stalemate. 

Florida does not have a minimum-age requirement for students entering community colleges. However, each college's board of trustees can basically set its own rules regarding admission standards.

John Boshoven, a member of the board of directors for the National Association for College Admission Counseling in Arlington, Va., and a counselor for continuing education at Community High School in Ann Arbor, Mich., said colleges will look at young applicants with a much more critical eye, usually because of liability.

"The primary issue most often is safety. Anything that happens to this kid, the parents can sue us for being negligent," Boshoven said. "There are also social problems. She's [Annie] very young, and what kind of friends will she make at the college? This is a kid with a 21-year-old's brain."

'Tons of possibilities' 

Annie's parents say it's time their daughter enrolls in a public academic setting. They're not interested in online courses at Lake-Sumter. 

"It's an unreal environment here," her father said, referring to the home-school setting at the family's home near Center Hill about 50 miles northwest of Orlando. "She needs this. She's going to have to get into a classroom."

Annie agreed, saying it would be an adjustment for the first month if she is allowed to enroll at the college. "I would like to think I would do fine," she said.

Eventually she plans to study business management, law or engineering at Georgetown or an Ivy League school.

"There's tons of possibilities for me," she said.

Annie's parents say the University of Florida is too far and any other university would mean moving out of the area. They'll decide what to do next if they are not able to enroll their daughter at Lake-Sumter. That could mean slowing down on the academics and traveling to remote spots around the world with their children, something they often do. 

"It's a shame to see the [college] administration taking the go-slow approach to a bright student who wants to continue to learn," Megan said.

Teens in college

Other young students with superior academic skills have been able to attend college.

•Last year, Moshe Kai Cavalin, a 13-year-old student, graduated with honors from East Los Angeles Community College with an associate arts degree in liberal studies. Moshe started college when he was 8.

•Thirteen-year-old Colin Carlson is a sophomore at the University of Connecticut, where he has been taking classes since he was 9.

•Locally, a 13-year-old student attended Seminole State College in Sanford for three terms from fall 2008 through fall 2009 as a dual-enrollment student. The college did not provide the name of the student, citing privacy protection.

•Lake-Sumter itself recently trumpeted the success of a student who entered as a home-schooled student at 14. Jasmine Lykins of Groveland graduated at age 16 and was selected to give the commencement address May 7. During her first semester in spring of 2008 she took college algebra and fundamentals of speech with her father, Jerry Lykins.