Adult Woman Allegedly Posed as 15-Year-Old Student to Attend High School
“This is a wake-up call to do better.”
An adult woman reportedly enrolled in a New Jersey high school and attended for four days before being caught and thrown out. "By filing false documents, an adult female posing as a student was able to be enrolled in our high school," Superintendent Aubrey Johnson told the Board of Education during a January 24 meeting.
Authorities are deeply concerned about what the motivations of the woman might have been—here's what students think might have happened.
The woman reportedly used fake documents saying she was a 15-year-old girl to enroll in New Brunswick High School during the week of January 16. "She was here for four days before being found out, and barred from entering the district property," Johnson says. "All appropriate authorities were immediately notified, and the individual in question has now been arrested for providing false documentation."
Suspicions were raised when the school couldn't identify a parent or legal guardian for the "student." When questioned, the woman asked to sign herself out of school. She was told as a minor this was not possible, and that's when she admitted she was actually 29 years old. "We're going to take a look at our process… in terms of how to better look for fake documentation and other things," Johnson told the board members.
Board of Education members are reportedly anxious to sweep the incident under the carpet, refusing to allow students to talk about what happened with the fake adult student. "We feel so unsafe and nobody wants to listen to us," NBHS student Ethan Calderon told New Brunswick Today. "Do they not care about us because we're minorities?"
Another student says the woman texted her late at night even after being removed from the school. "I was in class with this woman, and talked to her, walked her from point A to point B, and never expected this to happen," says the student, Tatianna. "Not knowing she was a 29-year-old woman makes me question how safe I am in this building."
The students believe the woman might have been involved in illegal activities. "From what I've been told, [the woman's] intentions were to lure kids to a specific street in New Brunswick and possibly traffic them," Castro says. "It was so easy for her to engage with these students, teachers, and faculty members because no one ever did a thorough investigation of where this woman came from. This is a wake-up call to do better and ensure the safety of students in New Brunswick."
