The court has ordered a mental health evaluation on a 29-year-old Korean-American woman who falsified her identity to enroll in a high school in New Jersey.
According to the South China Morning Post (SCMP) on May 15, the court ordered Hye-Jung Shin, 29, who is accused of enrolling and posing as a high school student at New Brunswick High School, enter a pre-trial intervention program.
The program requires Shin to undergo a mental health evaluation, and if she completes the program, the charges against her could be dismissed.
In January, Shin was caught posing as a high school student and attending the school for four days before the school staff found out her age. She falsified her birth certificate and claimed to be 16 years old to be enrolled.
In march, Shin plead not guilty to the charges of forging government documents to falsify her age.
Shin’s defense lawyers said she had no ill intentions when she enrolled in the school in January and was just trying to return to a safe and welcoming place to recreate the sense of security she had felt as a student at a boarding school in Massachusetts.
BY SUAH JANG [support@koreadaily.com]
