A 28-year-old woman and her mother were taken into custody after she posed as a 17-year-old to enroll into a Louisanna high school.
Martha Gutierrez-Serrano is accused of using a fake passport and birth certificate to enroll in Hahnville High School in Boutte. Officials from the St Charles Parish Public Schools district received a tip that a female student, who claimed to be 17 years old, was an adult in her mid-20s.
Gutierrez-Serrano told investigators she enrolled in school to learn the English language, St. Charles Parish Sheriff Greg Champagne said during a news conference Wednesday. “The young woman wanted to become proficient in English and perhaps further her education, which I think we can all be sympathetic with,” Champagne said. “She was in school, she minded her own business, she did her school work. She caused no trouble, she was not a disciplinary problem.”
Detectives eventually obtained a search warrant for the home Ms Gutierrez-Serrano that she shared with her 46-year-old mother, Marta Serrano-Alvarado. They found a fake passport and birth certificate belonging to the younger woman, the sheriff’s office said. Detectives learned that Ms Serrano-Alvarado had used the false documents to enroll her daughter at Hahnville High, the sheriff’s office said.
St. Charles Parish Public Schools is now reviewing enrollment procedures and conducting an audit of enrollment documents of all current students, Superintendent Ken Oterling said at the news conference.
The school system will also provide additional required training for all school and district-level employees focused on recognizing potentially fraudulent documents, Oterling said.