34-year-old woman posed as teen, spent the past year as a high school sophomore
It's like 21 Jump Street, without the crime fighting: School officials say a 34-year-old woman posed as a high school sophomore for almost the entire school year, tricking her classmates and teachers into thinking she was 15.
Authorities aren't sure why Charity Anne Johnson enrolled at New Life Christian School in Longview, Texas, as Charity Stevens. She told Principal Stuart Newlin that she had been homeschooled, ABC News says, and was living with a friend she made while working at McDonald's. Tamica Lincoln, 30, agreed to let Johnson live with her after being told Johnson's parents had kicked her out. "She acted like a kid," Lincoln says. "She did her homework. She got good report cards."
Newlin agrees, telling ABC News that Johnson acted like a typical teen. She was well-liked with lots of friends, and active on social media, posting photos of Hello Kitty on Instagram and selfies on Twitter. The jig was up once Johnson attempted to enroll in a group for needy children; a woman from the organization ran a background check and discovered the girl everyone thought was a teenager was really born in 1979. Once Lincoln found out she called the police, who arrested Johnson on Monday. She has been charged with failure to show identification, and is at the Gregg County Jail on a $500 bond.
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Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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