A woman in her late 20s and her mother face charges in Boutte, Louisiana, after allegedly falsifying documents so the young woman could attend high school.
Local authorities arrested Martha Jessenia Gutierrez-Serrano, 28, and Marta Elizabeth Serrano-Alvarado, 46, for one count each of injuring public records, according to a news release from the St. Charles Parish Sheriff’s Office.
Acting on a tip, officials at Hahnville High School found that an older woman was potentially posing as a 17-year-old to attend ninth grade during the 2022-2023 school year.
In late May, they alerted the authorities, who in a subsequent investigation found that Gutierrez-Serrano had been enrolled by her mother using a forged passport and birth certificate from Honduras, according to the news release.
In a press conference held last week, St. Charles Parish Sheriff Greg Champagne explained that the apparent motive for Gutierrez-Serrano’s enrollment had been to improve her English.
“She was in school, she minded her own business, she did her schoolwork, she caused no trouble,” Champagne told reporters. “It is not the crime of the century.”
While legal avenues for adults to improve their proficiency in English exist, such as ESL or GED programs, Champagne said that he did not know why they chose to go the route of high school.
“Unfortunately, whether it was her decision or her mother’s decision, it’s certainly bad judgment to submit a falsified document to the government,” Champagne added.
The birth certificate, according to Champagne, showed no sign of being inauthentic and Gutierrez-Serrano “very easily be taken for a young teenager” based on a photograph taken at the time of her enrollment.
At the same news conference, Superintendent Ken Oertling of St. Charles Parish School District said that a review of all enrolled students’ documents is currently underway.
A statement from the district also promised to “enhance processes to determine the authenticity of enrollment documents for current and future students as well as modify policy and procedures as warranted,” according to ABC News.
Gutierrez-Serrano arrived in the U.S. in 2021, joining her mother Serrano-Alvarado, who had been living in the U.S. since 2019.
A similar case was reported in East Texas in 2017 when a 34-year-old woman posed as a 15-year-old, attending high school and fooling a 30-year-old woman who took her in, according to ABC News. No motive for the alleged deceit was discovered in this case.
