JEZEBEL
It’s a story that sounds like it came out of a Hollywood writers’ room (see 21 Jump Streetand Never Been Kissed): A 29-year-old woman posed as a teenager at New Brunswick High School in New Jersey and attended classes there earlier this month. NBC New York reports that Hyejeong Shin, who submitted a fake birth certificate saying that she was a minor, has since been arrested for providing false government documents, leaving students shaken and upset.
According to New Brunswick Today, Shin attended the school during the week of January 16, and sat in on classes, formed budding friendships with students, and even swapped numbers with some of them. Students interviewed by CBS New York confirmed that Shin was pretending to be a 15-year-old freshman—a move that they thought was “more surprising” and was probably the detail that tipped adults off that something was amiss. Guidance counselors’ suspicions around Shin prompted further investigation of her documents, which led to the discovery of her fraud, HuffPostreported. Shin was charged with using falsified government documents to verify one’s age on Tuesday…
While the high school and police have yet to provide a motive behind Shin’s actions, some students told New Brunswick Today that they suspect Shin was planning to involve female students in sex trafficking. “I think she was really trying to traffic young women,” high school senior Abrianna Martin said in a TV interview. “I heard she was still trying to contact some of the young girls here even after we found out.” The district has allegedly contacted the parents of students with whom Shin made direct contact, and have advised them to cut off communication immediately…
