Adult Woman, 29, Posed As Teen, Enrolled In New Brunswick High School

NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ — A 29-year-old adult woman posed as a teenager and enrolled in classes at New Brunswick High School last week, revealed New Brunswick school district superintendent Aubrey Johnson at the Tuesday night Board of Education meeting.

School officials contacted police, and the woman has been arrested and barred from returning to school property.

Hyejeong Shin, 29, a New Brunswick resident, has been charged with one count of providing a false government document, a third-degree crime.

New Brunswick Today quoted students saying they have received ongoing text messages from the woman, even into this week. The newspaper also reported some students suspect the woman is trying to lure teenage girls into illegal sex work.

Police say she submitted a false birth certificate to the New Brunswick Board of Education when she tried to enroll as a juvenile school student.

"Last week, by filing false documents, an adult female posing as a student was able to be enrolled in our high school," the superintendent said. "She attended school for four days ... Throughout the schedule she was in a few classes and then most of the time, in our guidance suite as we were trying to get more information from her."

"She was here for four days before being found out," he said. "She has been barred from entering district property. The individual in question has now been arrested."

The New Brunswick school district appears to be taking this incredibly seriously: Johnson said all students who had encounters with "this person" have been contacted by the district, and the school district also told students to refrain from having further contact with her, "either remotely or in person."

One teen student said she had received a text message from the woman as recently as 10:56 p.m. this past Monday night.

Johnson called it an "unfortunate event" and even said the New Brunswick school district is re-examining its procedures for how students enroll remotely to prevent something this like from happening again.

Under New Jersey state law, public schools are required to immediately enroll all unaccompanied children, even if they lack records. Proof of guardianship is not necessary to enroll an unaccompanied child or youth. Although a school district may request documents such as a birth certificate, no school district can deny a student admission because he or she lacks a birth certificate, or has a foreign birth certificate.

Any student requesting admission without being able to prove their identity must be provisionally admitted to the school. From that point, the student has 30 days to provide information that confirms their identity — or the school district will have the option of declaring them ineligible to attend classes.