29-year-old NJ woman arrested after trying to enroll in high school

A woman was recently arrested after posing as a teenager at a New Jersey high school.  

The woman was identified as 29-year-old Hyejeong Shin by New Brunswick police and was charged with one count of providing fake government documents with the intent to verify one’s age, a third-degree offense.  

Shin gave a fake birth certificate to the New Brunswick Board of Education to enroll as a student at New Brunswick High School, according to police.  

The woman was able to attend the school for four days and went to class with fellow students before she was discovered, according to New Brunswick Today, which first reported the story.  

The New Jersey Department of Education requires schools to immediately enroll unaccompanied children even if they are missing records normally required for enrollment, New Brunswick police said.  

Shin’s presence at the school has sparked concerns over her motives and about current protocols to verify student identities.  

New Brunswick Schools Superintendent Aubrey Johnson called Shin’s matriculation “an unfortunate event” at a school board meeting Tuesday night and vowed to reassess how schools verify student identities.  

“We are going to take a look at our process in terms of how to better look for fake documents and things,” Johnson said.