KRYSTIE'S DANCE Suit: Academy halted teen from dancing because of weight

The girl was 'devastated' and cried herself to sleep, the suit says.
WARREN -- A Howland dance academy faces a $25,000 lawsuit from a teenage dancer and her mom, who say the academy kept her from competing because of her weight.
Lauren Weir, 14, and her mother, Lorraine Donaldson, both of 590 Avalon Drive, filed suit in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court against Krystie's Dance Academy, 1543 Niles-Cortland Road.
They and Atty. Raymond J. Macek of Warren seek a jury trial before Judge Peter Kontos, the $25,000 compensatory and unspecified amount of punitive damages, and costs.
Owner Krystie Whetstone-Sutch could not be reached Thursday.
The Howland Middle School pupil began her dance training at Krystie's four years ago.
The suit said her commitment to dancing, her friends, co-pupils and fellow dancers, as well as Krystie's, is "evidenced by her grueling recovery from foot surgery, which required the insertion of pins and allowed her to achieve participation in the national competition with Krystie's on or about June 2004."
At all times, the suit continues, Lauren and her mom acted on promises that the girl would dance and show her acquired and advancing abilities before audiences as a "competition team dancer." Her weight was never raised by the academy as a factor for placement in routines through September 2004.
"The ultimate goal of Lauren and for which she worked unceasingly, to the point of rapid recovery from a devastating foot injury, was to participate in the senior competition for those girls [13] and up," the document continues. They spent $6,000 on payments to Krystie's, exclusive of dance shoes, T-shirts, warm-up suits and other accessories bearing the academy's label.
After four years' work and money, the owner told Donaldson the girl couldn't participate in the scheduled competition and could not wear the "skimpier costumes until she toned down."
Upset
According to the suit, Lauren was "devastated," cried herself to sleep and suffered emotional distress. Her mom lost money, also suffered emotional distress and humiliation and needed to transfer Lauren to an alternative dance studio, it added. She is subject to taunts at school that anyone who goes to the alternative dance studio "is fat" and "only the skinny girls go to Krystie's," it said.
The plaintiffs say the academy had a duty to recognize the emotional frailty of children in the conduct of business, and the psychological trauma inherent in the peer group at issue.
Donaldson says in the suit she spent a lot of money with the expectation her daughter would learn self-confidence and perform in front of an audience with her friends and peers, "not hidden in the back row or in Krystie's words 'blended in the back row' due to a perceived weight problem."