US

29-Year-Old Woman Who Allegedly Enrolled In High School Pleads Not Guilty

[Screenshot/YouTube/ABC News]

Font Size:

A 29-year-old woman who allegedly pretended to be a teenager so she could attend a high school in New Jersey pleaded not guilty Monday to charges of falsifying documents, arguing she was merely seeking “a place of safety.”

Hyejeong Shin made headlines in January 2023 when she allegedly enrolled as a student and attended New Brunswick High School in New Jersey for four days, according to a police statement. The incident spurred protests from concerned students and parents who demanded answers from the school administration about how Shin was able to enroll, citing safety concerns.

Shin’s lawyers argued March 20 that, though her alleged actions might be perceived as “bizarre,” Shin was merely “trying to recreate the sense of safety she had felt as a student at a Massachusetts boarding school,” The New York Times reported. Shin, a legal immigrant from South Korea who came to the United States at the age of 16 to attend boarding school, is recently divorced and far from home, her lawyers contended.

“This entire case is more about my client’s desire to return to a place of safety and welcoming in an environment that she looks back on with fondness — and nothing more,” Shin’s lawyer, Darren M. Gelber, stated, according to The New York Times. (RELATED: Man Broke Into High School, Lived There For 2 Days, Stole Plow Truck Then Tried To Rob Department Store)

Shin graduated from Rutgers University as a “top-notch” student in 2019 with a degree in political science and a minor in Chinese and had been attempting to earn a master’s degree when she went through a “bitter divorce,” Henry Hong Jung, another of Shin’s lawyers, stated, according to The New York Times. During that time, Shin was reportedly unemployed and fell behind on her rent, allegedly owing $20,000.

“I’m no psychologist,” Gelber added, “but separated from her family and being in a different country — as well as a couple of other stressors in her life — may have caused her to act very uncharacteristically.”

“There are personal issues that she needs to resolve,” Jung agreed. “She’s been away from home a long time,” he added, according to the outlet.

After her arrest, New Brunswick police told parents there was no evidence Shin had intended to “bring harm or violence to the students, staff or faculty,” The New York Times reported.

Shin is due to appear back in court on May 15.

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel