Prosecutors say Claassen enrolled<\/a> at Westchester Square Academy in April, telling school officials she was just 16 and had recently moved from New York to Ohio with her sister.<\/p>\nWestchester Square Academy has about 400 students and is co-located with several other schools on the large Herbert H. Lehman Campus in East Tremont.<\/p>\n
Students wondered how she was let into school in the first place.<\/p>\n
Hernandez said the bizarre episode had left him rattled. \u201cIt made me feel like our school\u2019s not safe and more things can happen,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Demmitt said she saw Claassen attend teachers\u2019 office hours.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe would stay every day after school and every day before school. And she would take time from other kids \u2026 which wasn’t right, because I actually needed help \u2026 and she would take my time,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Deborah Alexander, a representative from the Bronx on the Citywide Council on High Schools, a parent advisory board, said the incident is disturbing and makes her question whether the city\u2019s enrollment process needs improvement.<\/p>\n
\u201cParents should never have to question whether basic safeguards are being followed, particularly when it comes to who is in the building,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Education department spokesperson Isla Gething said the department is \u201cproviding all necessary and suitable support\u201d to the school community. School leaders notified parents of the incident.<\/p>\n
\u201cEnrollment fraud is a serious crime that fundamentally undermines New York City Public School values,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Gething did not immediately respond to questions about how Claassen enrolled, including how she managed to pull it off without a parent or guardian.<\/p>\n
Demmitt, who had math, biology and gym classes with Claassen, said the vibes were off right from the start.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe all were saying she looks, like, really old,\u201d she said, adding that Claassen had a lot of tattoos on her chest, including of a moon and a demon. \u201cYou could tell she was not our age.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said Claassen was \u201cacting really weird\u201d and would \u201cask stupid questions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Demmitt recalled one strange disruption during a class.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe just started sneezing and ran out of the classroom,\u201d she said. \u201cWe were all saying how it was weird.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to the complaint, Claassen attended Westchester Square Academy for two weeks until the principal confronted her with a screenshot of her Facebook page, which included her real name and date of birth.<\/p>\n
Claassen then admitted to the principal she lied, saying her friend \u201cforced\u201d her to enroll in school \u201cto receive more public assistance,\u201d according to the complaint.<\/p>\n
She was charged with criminal impersonation and trespass and pleaded not guilty.<\/p>\n
Her attorney did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n
The school was put on \u201ca hold<\/a>,\u201d with students required to remain in their classrooms, during the arrest.<\/p>\nHernandez, the sophomore, said he was shocked to find out the new student sitting in the back of the class was actually an adult. \u201cThe next day, everyone is talking about [how] she\u2019s a woman, a full-grown woman,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I\u2019m just so surprised because I thought she was 15. She acted just like a 15-year-old, doing her work and everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
Students said the school sent letters home with kids informing their parents of the situation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Teens at Westchester Square Academy in the Bronx said they\u2019re on edge after a 28-year-old woman allegedly attended…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":223624,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,9,24,63,129,131,130],"class_list":["post-223623","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\/223623","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=223623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223623\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/223624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}