A 28-year-old woman who is accused of using a fake passport and birth certificate in order to pose as a 17-year-old student to attend a high school in Louisiana has been arrested along with her mother, authorities announced Wednesday.
School officials in the St. Charles Parish Public School District became aware that a student who had been attending Hahnville High School in Boutte during the 2022-2023 academic year was in fact possibly an adult woman. After conducting an internal investigation, the district alerted the sheriff’s office in St. Charles Parish on May 29, Sheriff Greg Champagne announced in a Wednesday press conference.
The woman, who enrolled roughly one year prior to her arrest, reportedly told investigators that she had enrolled in order to learn English.
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On Tuesday, the woman and her 46-year-old mother, who live together in Boutte, were both arrested and charged with injuring public records stemming from the alleged falsification of documents. USA TODAY is not identifying the women because the charges are misdemeanors.
Sheriff’s detectives discovered during the investigation that the women used fraudulent passport and birth certificate to enroll the daughter last June in the school district, according to the media release.
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During her time at the school, the woman was not involved in extracurricular activities and faced no disciplinary issues, the sheriff’s office said.
In a statement provided Thursday morning to USA TODAY, the school district said that while its current enrollment procedures align with Louisiana law, it plans to review and update its process of authenticating enrollment documents. District employees will also receive additional training for how to recognize potential fraud.
In the meantime, school officials are conducting an audit of all enrollment documents for students enrolled in the district, Superintendent Ken Oertling said in a written statement.
“It is Dr. Oertling’s hope that this particular incident will bring an awareness to school systems in Louisiana and throughout the country of the need to review and enhance their student enrollment processes,” according to the statement.
Eric Lagatta covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Reach him at elagatta@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter @EricLagatta.