{"id":780466,"date":"2026-05-07T21:10:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T21:10:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/780466\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T21:10:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T21:10:17","slug":"28-year-old-woman-accused-of-posing-as-new-york-high-school-student","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/780466\/","title":{"rendered":"28-year-old woman accused of posing as New York high school student"},"content":{"rendered":"

A woman in her late 20s was recently arrested after she allegedly posed as a teenager<\/a> and attended a New York City high school.<\/p>\n

The New York Police Department, in an email to USA TODAY, said that around 12:15 p.m. EDT on April 27, officers responded to a call regarding \u201cpossible identity theft\u201d at Westchester Square Academy in the Bronx.<\/p>\n

When officers arrived, the school staff said that \u201can unidentified female was trespassing inside of the location.\u201d Kacy Claassen, 28, was subsequently taken into custody without incident, according to police.<\/p>\n

Claassen is currently facing criminal impersonation and trespassing charges, police said. Claassen pleaded not guilty and will return to court in June, according to New York State court records.<\/p>\n

USA TODAY has reached out to Joseph Hayes Rochman, Claassen\u2019s attorney, and Westchester Square Academy for comment.<\/p>\n

Here’s what to know about the case.<\/p>\n

Former Alabama DL Luther Davis accused of impersonating NFL players in $20M loan scam<\/a><\/p>\n

How did Claassen allegedly pose as a student?<\/p>\n

On April 13, Claassen enrolled at Westchester Square Academy in New York City’s Bronx <\/a>neighborhood, using the pseudonym Shamara Rashad, according to a criminal complaint obtained by local TV station ABC 7<\/a> and the Associated Press<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Within two weeks, school administrators grew suspicious of Claassen\u2019s identity, and the school\u2019s principal, Marques Rich, dug up her Facebook profile, per the outlets.<\/p>\n

Rich reportedly confronted Claassen, who continued to deny her true identity, saying she was Rashad, a 16-year-old Ohio native who moved to the city with her sister, according to the complaint.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t until Claassen was brought face-to-face with a screenshot of her own Facebook profile, complete with her true date of birth and previous residence in Kansas, that she finally came clean, the complaint said. She blamed a friend for forcing the ruse upon her, in the hope of collecting public assistance money from the city, according to the complaint.<\/p>\n

Man, woman accused of $3.5M scam impersonating NBA, NFL players<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2018Ghost students\u2019 trend<\/p>\n

In a statement shared with USA TODAY, NYC Schools said, \u201cEnrollment fraud is a serious crime that fundamentally undermines New York City Public School values,\u201d adding, \u201cThe NYPD is actively investigating these allegations and will pursue all appropriate legal action against those responsible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Claassen\u2019s case mirrors a larger trend at the collegiate level known as \u201cghost students<\/a>,\u201d in which scammers sign up for community college courses using fake identities, collect financial aid payments and then disappear.<\/p>\n

According to reports, the Department of Education<\/a> identified $150 million that was lost to the scheme in 2025.<\/p>\n

Drew Pittock covers national trending news for USA TODAY. He can be reached at DPittock@usatodayco.com.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 28-year-old woman accused of impersonating as NYC high school student<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A woman in her late 20s was recently arrested after she allegedly posed as a teenager and attended…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":780467,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,319436,319435,405,403,5721,5226,5225,5228,5227,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,13627,319434],"class_list":{"0":"post-780466","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-joseph-hayes-rochman","10":"tag-kacy-claassen","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-city","13":"tag-new-york-police-department","14":"tag-newyork","15":"tag-newyorkcity","16":"tag-ny","17":"tag-nyc","18":"tag-united-states","19":"tag-united-states-of-america","20":"tag-unitedstates","21":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","22":"tag-us","23":"tag-usa","24":"tag-usa-today","25":"tag-westchester-square-academy"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116535350261107415","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/780466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=780466"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/780466\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/780467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=780466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=780466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=780466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}