In New Jersey, a 29-year-old woman was detained on suspicion of pretending to be a high school student.
Police have charged the woman, identified as Hyejeong Shin, with enrolling in New Brunswick High School using a false identification.
Before staff found our her age, Ms. Shin had been a student at the school for four days.
Police are looking into the situation, according to school officials, and the district’s enrollment procedure will be reviewed.
The issue was brought up at a local education board meeting on Tuesday January 24, where New Brunswick Public School District Superintendent Aubrey Johnson told attendees that Ms Shin was caught at the school.
“Last week, by filing some false documents, an adult female posing as a student was able to be enrolled in our high school,” Superintendent Aubrey Johnson said.
She had taken a few classes, he said, and had spent some time talking to guidance counselors who had tried to learn more about her.
After Ms Shin’s false age was discovered, the school promptly called the police, according to Mr. Johnson.
According to the New Brunswick Police Department, she has since been detained for producing a false birth certificate “with the intent to enrol as a juvenile high-school student”.
The woman allegedly texted some of the students, inviting them to hang out.
The girls “never showed up, and she [Ms Shin] started acting odd with them,” one student tod a reporter.
According to police, students can enroll in school even without a guardian or all the necessary documents under New Jersey state law.
It has happened before when an adult was discovered passing for a high school student.
In 1993, a guy by the name of Brian MacKinnon, then 30 years old, pretended to be a fifth-year student at a high school.
He identified himself as a 17-year-old Canadian.
MacKinnon attended the school for an entire year. A newspaper article about his true identity led to his exposure a year later, when he was a student at Dundee University’s medical school.
A 2022 documentary movie was made about his story, which received widespread attention.
Author-Roberta Appiah
