<prompt> Human: Im still not 100 sure on how this happened which is why Im coming to you guys. This all took place in New York.So a few years ago I started college as a freshman and got some student loans to help. My abusive father made me take out this parental loan or something like that for 15,000 to pay for school. I was 18 at the time and didnt really know the details, he basically took the loan out himself. Long story short, I ended my abusive relationship with him a year later and dropped out of school to deal with my mental health issues and lived with my mom for a while.Fast forward to now: Im trying to apply to another school and my old school is telling me that my transcripts are being withheld. Apparently my father cashed out the loan, took the money for himself, and didnt make any payments or inform me of what he did. So technically I owed all of that money to the school now? The school was sending him bills and and notices to pay and he was just ignoring them and not telling me about them. There were so many missed payments on the loan that it eventually went to a collection agency. Now theyre telling me the only way to get my transcripts back is to pay back all of that money.I work for 9.50 an hour and can barely afford to feed myself and my dog. How am I supposed to even put a dent in this debt? Is there any legal recourse I can take? Im starting to get really stressed and depressed about this so I would really appreciate any help I could get.Thanks for taking the time to read this.Edit: It seems that I was a little confused about how these loans work but that doesnt change the fact that my father did something and now the school is holding my transcripts until someone pays them the 15,000 owed. I will be talking to the school and the lender to straighten things out. I appreciate all the responses.Edit 2: I also checked my credit report and this loan does not show up there my other ones that Im normally paying off do and to set the record straight, I took a medical leave of absence documented by the school and by my psychiatrist due to my worsening depression which developed because of his abuse and my dad claimed that I was just drinking and getting high too much so he decided to do this out of spite.Edit 3: Ive considered just starting school over from scratch but Ive been told by the new school and other people that I can get kicked out of school or have my degree taken away for not submitting transcriptsEdit 4: I need to sleep but I will keep answering questions on this tomorrow. Thank you everyone.Edit 5: Had a busy day today. I will make those phone calls tomorrow and will update everyone on what they say.Edit 6: So I had a nice talk with my school and they are willing to work out a deal with me to pay them a small amount now and set up a payment plan for the rest in order to temporarily release my transcript. Im still dealing with the lender to try and figure out how and why my dad would leave this massive debt under his name. In the short term, my dad won. He succeeded in screwing me out of a couple thousand dollars which my mom is thankfully going to help me with. The issue with my old school was that there was an unpaid balance for my tuition and it didnt matter who was gonna pay for it, theyre holding my transcripts regardless. Once I figure out what is going on with my lender I will post an update. Thanks for the help everyone! Assistant: Is the loan in your name or your fathers? You go back and forth on this, you seem unclear, and its important.The school can, unfortunately, withhold official transcripts though it still must provide unofficial ones if YOU owe money to the school. But I dont see any basis for withholding transcripts for someone else being in default.If its his loan, then its his to repay and you should fight for the transcripts. If its your loan, you have problems.Human: I have a loan in my name that I am paying off normally but Im pretty sure this one is a Parent Plus Loan?. Im not 100 certain. This was years ago and I was very depressed at the time and he was a very controlling person and would do things like this make me apply to schools and take out these loans. Its very hard for me to remember what happened exactly because he did most of these things in my name. Im gonna get more information from the school on exactly what happened. I just think the issue here is that money is owed to the school to pay for the transcripts, regardless of who owes it. He owes the money too for the transcripts, he just doesnt care and wont pay it off.Assistant: Parent Plus loans are solely the responsibility of the parent.Human: Yeah thats what Im trying to figure out. If its his responsibility and he owes the money then is the school still allowed to withhold the transcripts from me? Im pretty sure he cashed out that loan and took the money and is just refusing to pay that debt back therefore keeping my transcripts hostage.  <response>: Dont conflate the players.Most likely, dad fucked himself on the loan. Dont worry about that.The school is a separate issue. 