28-year-old illegal immigrant arrested for posing as teenager to attend high school.

A shocking case has emerged of a 28-year-old woman from Honduras who managed to attend a Louisiana high school for an entire academic year by using fake documents to pose as a 17-year-old student. The St. Charles Parish Sheriff revealed this astonishing story on Wednesday.

In the fall of 2021, Martha Jessenia Gutierrez-Serrano arrived in the U.S. to live with her mother, Marta Elizeth Serrano-Alvarado, who was staying in the country on an expired visa. Allegedly, Serrano-Alvarado used a fake passport and birth certificate to enroll Gutierrez-Serrano at Hahnville High School in Boutte, which is located about 30 miles west of New Orleans, as reported by ABC News (source).

According to Sheriff Greg Champagne, the school system received a birth certificate from Honduras indicating that the student in question was 17 years old. However, within a day and a half of receiving a tip, the school system conducted a preliminary investigation and determined that the student was actually older and that the birth certificate was likely counterfeit.

After the end of the school year, the school district initiated an internal investigation based on a tip suggesting that a 17-year-old female student might be in her mid-20s. Sheriff Champagne saw a photograph of the 28-year-old woman taken by the U.S. government before she entered the country and remarked, “She could very easily be mistaken for a young teenager.”

Remarkably, Gutierrez-Serrano attended the school for the entire 2022-2023 academic year with the intention of learning English, according to the sheriff.

“She was a diligent student who focused on her studies, caused no trouble, and simply wanted to improve her English skills,” said Sheriff Champagne.

Both Gutierrez-Serrano and her mother were arrested and charged with one count of injuring public records.

“Unfortunately, whether it was her decision or her mother’s decision, it was certainly a grave error to submit falsified documents to the government,” the sheriff stated.

In response to this incident, the school district issued a statement, promising to enhance their processes for verifying enrollment documents and to modify policies and procedures as necessary.

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