{"id":223016,"date":"2026-05-07T10:14:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T10:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/223016\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T10:14:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T10:14:08","slug":"woman-charged-after-allegedly-posing-as-16-year-old-bronx-student-us-crime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/223016\/","title":{"rendered":"Woman charged after allegedly posing as 16-year-old Bronx student | US crime"},"content":{"rendered":"

A 28-year-old woman pretended to be age 16 and enrolled at a Bronx high school under a false identity before New York City<\/a> police jailed her recently, according to officials.<\/p>\n

Kacy Claassen pleaded not guilty to charges of criminal impersonation in the second degree as well as trespassing on 28 April, the day after her arrest, Bronx court records show.<\/p>\n

The case against Claassen joined a series of others in the US calling to mind the plots of movies such as 1987\u2019s Hiding Out or 1999\u2019s Never Been Kissed.<\/p>\n

A criminal complaint first reported by Manhattan-based WABC<\/a> and the New York Post<\/a> alleged that Claassen enrolled at Westchester Square academy on 13 April while claiming her name was Shamara Rashad and that her date of birth was in 2010.<\/p>\n

Claassen also allegedly told Westchester Square\u2019s principal that she had just moved from Ohio, but police said her ruse fell apart when the school director confronted her with a social media page revealing her true age and identity.<\/p>\n

Investigators maintain that Claassen at that point confessed to what she had done, saying a friend made her lie so that she could receive more public assistance.<\/p>\n

Police arrested Claassen at the school, and court records indicated that she was later released without being required to post a bond pending the outcome of the case against her.<\/p>\n

A public defender listed for Claassen didn\u2019t immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for New York<\/a> City\u2019s public school system issued a statement to WABC and the Post saying \u201cenrollment fraud is a serious crime that fundamentally undermines [the district\u2019s] values\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Police are] actively investigating these allegations and will pursue all appropriate legal action against those responsible,\u201d the statement continued. \u201cWe are providing all necessary and suitable support to the school community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Claassen\u2019s next court appearance was tentatively scheduled for 15 June.<\/p>\n

Her arrest unfolded a little more than 50 miles (80km) from a New Jersey high school where a woman who was 29 at the time was arrested on allegations of fraudulently enrolling as a student.<\/p>\n

Investigators in that case \u2013 from January 2023 \u2013 alleged<\/a> that Hyejeong Shin provided a fake birth certificate aimed at convincing officials that she was eligible to enroll at New Brunswick high. Shin later reportedly<\/a> enrolled in a pre-trial program for three years while also being required to undergo mental health testing and pay fines.<\/p>\n

Four years before Shin\u2019s arrest, a man in his mid-20s was found to have gained admission into Dallas\u2019s Hillcrest high school under a false name and then emerged as the best player on his campus\u2019s basketball team.<\/p>\n

The man in that case, Sidney Gilstrap-Portley, was ultimately sentenced<\/a> to six years\u2019 probation after he pleaded guilty to records tampering and indecency with illicit sexual contact involving an underage girl, who was 14 and a Hillcrest high student, news media<\/a> reports said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 28-year-old woman pretended to be age 16 and enrolled at a Bronx high school under a false…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":223017,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,9,24,63,129,131,130],"class_list":["post-223016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-bronx","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223016"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223016\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/223017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}