Woman pretends to be high schooler and attends 3 different schools, Boston officials say
When a man showed up to a Boston high school and said he was withdrawing his “daughter” from the school because of bullying, school administrators found it odd, according to a police report.
They found it strange the student was withdrawing and planned to attend a new school because she recently enrolled at English High School on June 8 — and because staff was dealing with the bullying report, a June 14 incident report provided to McClatchy News says.
A closer look at the high schooler’s enrollment paperwork revealed she was actually an adult woman, according to a letter from Boston Public Schools Superintendent Mary Skipper alerting families June 20.
In addition to English High School, the woman separately enrolled in and attended Brighton High School and Jeremiah E. Burke High School during the 2022-2023 school year, the letter said.
She’s accused of using several fake names to enroll.
“I am deeply troubled that an adult would breach the trust of our school communities by posing as a student,” Skipper said in a statement. “This appears to be a case of extremely sophisticated fraud. As soon as BPS personnel identified irregularities with the student’s enrollment, the case was referred to the Boston Police who are now undertaking a criminal investigation.”
Officials did not disclose the woman’s true identity and age. The police report lists three different suspects — two women and a man. Their names are redacted.
The woman’s school enrollment paperwork
As school administrators reviewed the woman’s enrollment paperwork, one paper referenced the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families but had a typo and said “Department of Children rind Families” instead, according to the police report.
The paper also listed a contact for a DCF social worker, the report says.
After administrators reached out to the department asking about the social worker, they were told a person with that name didn’t work for the department, the report says.
A DCF spokesperson told CBS Boston it is investigating.
McClatchy News contacted the DCF on June 21 and was awaiting a response.
“This is a quite, it seems, elaborate and unusually intensive case of fraudulent activity,” Boston Mayor Michelle Wu told CBS Boston.
As police investigate, no arrests have been made as of the afternoon of June 21.
The woman was ordered to not return to any Boston Public Schools facilities, according to Skipper.
“While the investigation is in its early stages and remains ongoing, school officials have not identified any incidents of harm to students or staff,” Skipper wrote in the letter sent to families.
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