{"id":168864,"date":"2026-04-17T21:00:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T21:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/168864\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T21:00:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T21:00:08","slug":"pittsburgh-woman-kidnapped-8-year-old-girl-from-school-by-pretending-to-be-her-mom-police-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/168864\/","title":{"rendered":"Pittsburgh woman kidnapped 8-year-old girl from school by pretending to be her mom, police say"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A Pittsburgh woman is facing kidnapping charges after police said she picked up an 8-year-old girl from school by pretending to be her mother.<\/p>\n<p>Homestead police said the 8-year-old girl&#8217;s mom called officers shortly before noon on March 20, saying her ex-girlfriend Jamya Jones-Houston had signed her daughter out of Barrett Elementary School without her permission.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Police said security footage showed a van pulling up in front of the school around 10:30 a.m., with a woman getting out and coming back a few minutes later with the girl. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Officers said they were able to contact Jones-Houston, who told police she had the girl and was waiting on Hays Street in Pittsburgh&#8217;s East Liberty neighborhood, about a half-hour drive away.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>When police got to the address Jones-Houston gave them, they said they found a vacant home. But while they were in the area, they saw Jones-Houston and the girl. Officers called the school staff, who took the girl back to her mother.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Police said officers talked to the Barrett Elementary principal, who said someone had called the school claiming to be the girl&#8217;s mom and that Jones-Houston had permission to pick up her daughter. A security guard checked Jones-Houston&#8217;s ID when she came to the school, then Jones-Houston took the girl, police said.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement, Steel Valley School District Superintendent Bryan Macuga said the district &#8220;took swift and immediate action&#8221; after learning what happened. Macuga said the district has had &#8220;constructive, positive communication&#8221; with the family and law enforcement.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The Steel Valley School District has also conducted its own investigation and comprehensive review of its security protocols and student release procedures,&#8221; Macuga said. &#8220;We will monitor and evaluate these protocols as we continue to prioritize the safety and well-being of all of our students.&#8221;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Jones-Houston was charged with the kidnapping of a minor and interference with the custody of children.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\n          More from CBS News\n        <\/p>\n<p class=\"content__tags__label\">In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Pittsburgh woman is facing kidnapping charges after police said she picked up an 8-year-old girl from school&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":45789,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[3626,73,75,74],"class_list":["post-168864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-kidnapping","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168864"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168864\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}