My Adult Girlfriend's Parents Won't Let Her Leave Their House

My question involves civil rights in the State of: Virginia. i have a girlfriend who lives in Clark County, Virginia. she is 18 almost 19 with a minor iep. the past weekend i came up from lower NC because she wanted to move out with me. but when the time came for us to leave her parents dragged her out of my car and across the gravel, and sent me away. they have hacked her facebook, turned off her cell phone that she pays for and is UNABLE to contact me or anyone else. this girl is scared beyond belief, i need to know if i can and SHOULD report this to the Clark County Sheriffs Department to get her out of there. also is this imprisonment and if so should i move to sue?

You cannot sue anybody. Nothing is being done to you.


If the parents have no legal right to constrain her actions and she wants to leave, then she is being held against her will.


Is there some reason the police were not already called?

The only thing I can see is your "minor iep" may not be as minor as you believe it to be. If the phone is actually hers and the account in her name, the parents do not have the ability to terminate the phone, legally at least. Those two things together suggest it may not be as you believe it is.

Are you certain she is 18?

As suggested by jk, are you certain that her issue is addressed only through an IEP (which is a school issue and unrelated to anything else)? Might they have a conservatorship of some kind over her?

If you are concerned for her safety, you are certainly free to contact the local law enforcement agency and explain what happened and ask that they conduct a welfare check on her. Maybe if you go out there and meet with the officers, they can stand by while you talk to the girl. Understand if she denies there is a problem or tells the officers that she's fine and doesn't want to talk to you, that may end it right there.