• A 28-year-old girl has been accused of pretending to be a Louisiana highschool scholar for a 12 months.
• Each the lady and her mom have been charged on Tuesday with falsifying authorities paperwork. 
• The native sheriff stated the lady was attending faculty as a result of she needed to study English.

A 28-year-old girl in Louisiana has been arrested and accused of posing as a 17-year-old on the Hahnville Excessive Faculty — and getting away with it for a whole 12 months. 

In an announcement launched on Tuesday, the St. Charles Parish Sheriff’s Workplace stated they’d arrested and charged the accused, Martha Jessenia Gutierrez-Serrano, and her 46-year-old mom, Marta Elizeth Serrano-Alvarado.

The sheriff’s workplace accused Serrano-Alvarado of utilizing a “fraudulent passport and beginning certificates” to enroll her in the highschool. Each girls have been additionally accused of falsifying public information. 

In a press convention held on Wednesday, Sheriff Greg Champagne instructed the media that Gutierrez-Serrano had attended Hahnville Excessive Faculty “for a 12 months”. 

“Far as we all know, she did nothing inappropriate in any respect, merely attended faculty,” stated Champagne. “The knowledge we acquired, in regards to the cause for her doing this was easy. She needed to study English, she needed to develop into proficient in English.”

Ken Oertling, the St. Charles Parish superintendent, stated on the press convention that the authorities plans to beef up checks throughout the enrollment course of.

“On account of this discovery, we’re conducting an audit of enrollment paperwork for college students at present enrolled in St. Charles Parish Public Colleges. We’re reviewing scholar enrolment coverage and procedures, and we’ll make enhancements based mostly on that overview,” stated Oertling.

Gutierrez-Serrano managed to maintain up the ruse for a 12 months — far longer than a 29-year-old girl, who was arrested in January and accused of pretending to be a scholar at a New Jersey highschool for 4 days. 

If discovered responsible of the cost of falsifying public information, Gutierrez-Serrano and her mom may face a jail time period of as much as 5 years, or a $5,000 tremendous. 

A consultant for the St. Charles Parish Sheriff’s Workplace didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark from Insider despatched exterior common enterprise hours.