by Paige Duane
After being accused of using false documents to enroll as a New Jersey high school student and attend classes, 29 year old woman Hyejeong Shin claims she did so because she was lonely and “longed to return to her days with friends in school”.
After pleading not guilty to a charge of providing a false government document, Shin applied to a pretrial intervention program that could dismiss the charge. According to her lawyer, she understands that she made a mistake. She will return to court in May.
During her time at high school, she managed to attend classes, visit the guidance counselor’s office, and collect phone numbers from students as well as a school official. According to students, she continued to contact her former classmates days after the situation was reported.
“All I wanted to do was make her feel comfortable at a new school,” one student said after receiving continuous text messages from Shin. “If she has the ability to falsify documents, enter a public high school, have close contact with young students she has the ability to do anything.”
In addition to messaging students, Shin also requested to meet several of them at a location after school.
This incident left many students feeling uncomfortable within their learning environment. Shortly after Shin was exposed, nearly a dozen students arrived to a school board meeting, however, were not permitted to speak on the matter as they had not registered for the event in advance.
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