By Juliana McLeod, News Staff

What did you do to pay for college? Perhaps you broke the piggy bank or hoped Grandma would be generous with your graduation gift. Maybe you found a summer job, or two, or three.

But for some, even that is not enough.

Headlines were recently made when an 18-year old from New Jersey decided to sue her parents for kicking her out of the house. Among other expenses, Rachel Canning asks that her parents pay all of her college tuition if she wins the case.

When I first heard about Canning, I was shocked by this teenage girl who was mad enough at her parents to make a point by hiring an attorney. I assumed she wanted money for a new car or a house with her boyfriend, who knows. But when I learned that she is asking for money for college, I took a step down from my judgmental pedestal.

Canning is asking for the chance to further her education and our court system may deny her this if she loses the case entirely.

I know that we live in a world where parents are not expected to pay their children’s college tuitions. But this reality may change if parents are forced to pay for kids cleverly using the judicial system.

Canning is not the only student who has used extreme methods to try to pay her way through school.

Another student whose name has made the papers is “Belle Knox,” the college student turned porn star who is paying her way through Duke University’s $60,000 tuition and fees by filming scenes for an online porn site.

This is a lot to take in. A young woman is taking off her clothes and performing sexual acts to pay for that science class and to afford all those textbooks. She is overcoming financial obstacles by making great leaps and bounds to support her academic future.

I will not judge Knox from here in Boston where I remain academically secure. Yes, it surprises me that her go-to job choice is pornography. But in an article she wrote for the online blog, xojane.com, Knox said, “[Pornography] is my artistic outlet:  my love, my happiness, my home.”

Other students, including me, may never fully understand Knox’s actions. I know I personally could not do what she has done. Yet I am not about to hate Knox or Canning for needing money.

Actually, I commend them. These two ladies are not planning on using their money on new shoes or a vacation for one. They are going through media hell – the bullying, name-calling and online torture – for their educations.

In a second article Knox wrote on xojane.com, Knox revealed some of the tweets aimed at her. The tweets ranged from threatening to kick Knox in the face to making her suffer. One tweet warned Knox that garbage would be thrown in her face.

Whereas some people are worried about Knox’s and Canning, I am more worried about those that feel the need to judge the pair from behind a computer screen. This harassment does not improve anyone’s future and is not bringing a young girl closer to her academic dreams. The mistreatment is completely unnecessary.

What is comforting is Knox and Canning’s urges to continue their educations. Beyond media rumors that Canning disobeyed her parents’ rules and Knox does not need tuition for school, the two of them are still taking action to improve academically.

I can say I never took as much action for my education. Not many people have.

-Juliana McLeod can be reached at [email protected].