Police are investigating how an adult could fraudulently enroll as a student into city schools using false identification and paperwork during this academic year, school officials said Tuesday.
The adult, who has not been identified, “has been discharged and is being ordered to stay away from Boston Public Schools,” BPS Superintendent Mary Skipper said in a letter to the school community on Tuesday.
At various points during the 2022-2023 school year, the adult attended the Jeremiah E. Burke High School, Brighton High School, and English High School utilizing the student transfer process and enrolling under multiple pseudonyms, Skipper said to the school community.
Last week, a Boston Public Schools staff member noticed irregularities in the paperwork on file and reported it school leaders, “who immediately contacted Boston Police,” Skipper said.
“While the investigation is in its early stages and remains ongoing, school officials have not identified any incidents of harm to students or staff,” Skipper said. “At this time families of students who may have interacted with this individual are being contacted directly by school staff and investigators.”
In a separate statement on the matter, Skipper called the incident a “breach of trust.”
“I am deeply troubled that an adult would breach the trust of our school communities by posing as a student,” Skipper said. “This appears to be a case of extremely sophisticated fraud. As soon as BPS personnel identified irregularities with the student’s enrollment, the case was referred to the Boston Police who are now undertaking a criminal investigation. I am grateful to the BPS staff who caught this and quickly acted and to the Boston Police for launching an immediate investigation.”