In an intriguing turn of events, a 28-year-old woman has recently been arrested for supposedly assuming the identity of a 17-year-old student and attending a Louisiana high school for the entire academic year.
Martha Jessenia Gutierrez-Serrano, the accused individual, went to great lengths to pose as a teenager in order to acquire English language skills. Remarkably, she managed to secure a place in the ninth grade, successfully maintaining her fabricated identity throughout her time at the school.
From ABC News:
"She was in school, she minded her own business, she did her schoolwork, she caused no trouble," the sheriff said. "She wanted to learn English."
Indeed, submitting falsified documents to the government is undoubtedly ill-advised and carries serious consequences.Gutierrez-Serrano, 28, and her mother, Marta Elizeth Serrano-Alvarado, 46, both of Boutte, Louisiana, were each charged Tuesday with one count of injuring public records, the St. Charles Parish Sheriff's Office said.
Serrano-Alvarado allegedly used a fraudulent passport and birth certificate to enroll her 28-year-daughter at Hahnville High School in Boutte during the 2022-2023 school year, according to the sheriff's office.
Boute is about 25 miles west of New Orleans.
School officials launched an investigation after getting "a tip that a female student, who was on record as being 17 years old, was in fact an adult possibly in her mid 20's," the sheriff's office said. School officials then relayed their findings to the authorities on May 29, the sheriff's office said.
The fraudulent birth certificate, from Honduras, "looked just like a real birth certificate," the sheriff said.
One cannot help but ponder whether it was Martha herself who conceived this elaborate scheme or if it was a joint effort involving her mother.
The origins of this audacious plan raise intriguing questions about the motivation and collaboration behind such an extraordinary ruse.
