A woman in her thirties posed as a student at three different Boston high schools during the 2022-23 school year, according to The Daily Beast — and police are investigating.
"A letter from the Boston Public Schools superintendent obtained by the station revealed that the woman attended three different high schools, enrolling under multiple names in an attempt to hoodwink the school district," said the report. "'I am deeply troubled that an adult would breach the trust of our school communities by posing as a student,' Superintendent Mary Skipper said, calling the scheme 'a case of extremely sophisticated fraud.'"
According to the report, the woman's deception was exposed by paperwork "irregularities," that caused schools to notify police.
"School officials have not identified any cases where students or staff were harmed in connection to the woman’s enrollment, according to the letter," reported the Boston Globe, noting that she has been disenrolled and ordered to stay away from all Boston Public Schools campuses. "Patrick Murphy, a Boston criminal defense attorney not associated with the case, said that absent other information the woman was likely to face charges of felony forgery and identity theft — potentially multiple counts for enrolling at multiple schools. Typically felony forgery cases involve monetary gain, like in real estate cases, Murphy said, but that’s not required."
This is not the first incident of an older woman posing as a high school student this year.
Earlier this month, Louisiana authorities arrested 28-year-old Martha Jessenia Gutierrez Serrano and her mother, over an alleged scheme in which she attended a high school in St. Charles Parish, posing as a 17-year-old girl, apparently to learn English.
