Social Worker Accused of Posing as Traumatized Teen, Enrolling in 3 High Schools

prosecutors in Boston say a social. worker pretended to be a traumatized. teen in the foster care system and. managed to enroll in several Local. Schools before she got caught we're. talking with forensic psychiatrist Dr. Daniel bber about what on Earth is going. on here welcome to sidebar presented by. law and crime I'm Jesse. Weber this is a uh new one to say the. least prosecutors in Boston they are. laying out a damning and bizarre case.

against 32-year-old former social worker. Shelby hwit after they say she went to. extreme lengths to pose as a teenager. and attend Local Schools you heard me. right yeah in court this week she. pleaded not guilty to nine charges. related to forgery and fraud you see. while huitt was pretending to be a ninth. grader and later a seventh grader court. documents say she had in fact had. already attended college and graduate. school and worked for the Department of. Children and Families she resigned back.

in February of this year but according. to prosecutors the scheme started 2. years ago and hu had allegedly pretended. to be a child in need in DCF custody but. at the same time she kept on collecting. her State salary of $54,000 a year now. you might be asking how did she. allegedly do this right well prosecutors. say that she had to forge all sorts of. documents to keep this elaborate scam. going she allegedly created her own. website domain to send emails from email. addresses that looked very similar to. the official DCF email address she then.

pretended to be two different DCF. workers Michael ketki and Michelle delie. and she did that to get herself enrolled. in both a behavioral treatment center. and Boston public schools in fact to get. herself into the Walden behavioral. Treatment Center she allegedly. impersonated as a real child who was in. state custody stole this person's. identity now according to the statement. of facts she allegedly enrolled as a. 16-year-old student at Jeremiah e Burk. high school in the fall of 2022 where.

she actually joined the girls basketball. team here's a side note she apparently. chose the number 32 for her Jersey her. age remember then she requested a. transfer to Brighton High School in June. of 2023 she alleged enrolled under a. different name at English High School in. Jamaica plane this time posing as a. 13-year-old this intricate but false. Narrative of being an extremely. traumatized child with significant. special educational needs and emotional.

needs so huitt is charged with various. crimes including document forgery and. identity theft her lawyer has said that. hu has a long documented history of. mental health issues and is getting. treatment I can certainly understand the. outrage the parents would feel I. certainly would feel the same as a. parent if my child was in a school that. wasn't being properly. supervised by the way how was she found. out I know you're probably wondering. that well it turns out that an. administrator saw all these problems s. in her registration paperwork after.

someone posing as her father tried to. get her transferred out of English high. school again someone posing as her. father and reportedly not only that. students started seeing there were. discrepancies in her story they even. found her yearbook photo from when she. actually attended Sharon high school for. now Shelby huitt is out on $5,000 bail. and her trial is scheduled for September. of next year she was required to stay. away from social work any schools and. anyone under the age of 18 let me bring.

in right now forensic psychiatrist Dr. Daniel bber do great to have you here my. gosh uh you know what I'm going to ask. you if she really did do this why well. she certainly exposed cracks within the. system um and I actually think um it was. pretty ingenious on her part to be able. to do this and to pull this off but you. know when I see this case it reminds me. of actually two different movies it. reminds me of the movie Never Been. Kissed with Drew marmore where she's an.

undercover reporter and she goes back to. high school and also the movie 21 Jump. Street similar and and 22 Jump Street. just to be clear but yeah sorry 22 jump. or maybe 32 jump it was 21 22 they'll. probably make a 23rd but yeah exactly. exactly but the point is is that they go. back to high school and besides the plot. of what they're trying to accomplish in. the movie they find out that high school. was not all that a pleasant experience. and so you see all this trauma that they. experienced in high school that bu PS up. to the surface and they become very.

triggered by it so perhaps this. individual is someone who either had a. very very nasty High School experience. and went back to try to do it right the. second time or what Sigman Freud called. repetition compulsion which is going. back to a previous trauma to try to. achieve Mastery over it or maybe the. opposite is true maybe she had a. wonderful High School experience and. those were the greatest years of her. life and because she's so miserable now. and so depressed she wanted to relive.

that so interesting the reason we're. saying this no motive has been laid out. um I was curious if it had something to. do with her past High School experience. could it also be and I am no friends of. psychiatrist that's what we call you for. could it be it was a simpler time in. life if you if you go back to that you. know you had your school classes you had. friends there was I mean obviously she's. still an adult she's got to pay her. bills she's got you know rent but the. point is is is like is it going back to.

that simpler time in life maybe not even. just what happened to her in high school. but like a simpler time of existence. when you're a young. child well I think all of us feel or a. lot of us feel that when we were younger. it was a simpler time and yes it was a. simpler time because we had less. responsibility and now we're adults and. we have jobs and we have bills to pay. and we have adult relationships to. negotiate uh but this could just also be. someone who is severely mentally ill. because if you think think about why she.

did this there's no obvious motive in. other words it's not there's no. secondary gain she didn't do it for. money uh and she went through a lot of. trouble to forge these documents and to. expose these cracks in the system and. you have to wonder what gratification is. she getting from this did she just enjoy. the thrill of being able to negotiate. her way through the system and fly under. the radar was that it I think there's. something deeper going on here and it. probably has to do with her previous. trauma but obviously she is very.

troubled uh but clearly she knew what. she was doing here because there were. attempts to obviously fool the system to. conceal her crime uh but again it's one. of those things where uh the more. complicated you make it it becomes more. believable but ironically it also. becomes easier to expose so I think. that's what's happening here now I as. far as I saw in my research you might. have seen something different although. attorney says that she's had this. history of mental health challenges was. it specific what those challenges were. what she was diagnosed with or or if not.

if you didn't see it and I didn't see it. um based on this alleged Behavior what. do you think she could be suffering from. it could be everything from a. personality disorder to something like a. psychosis or literally a departure from. reality so we're talking about something. like schizophrenia perhaps something. that's substance induced um or. personality disorder like borderline. personality disorder antisocial. personality disorder someone who has. trouble with negotiating relationships.

has a fear of Abandonment who you know. goes the whole spectrum of either. idealizing people or devaluing them who. has very unstable. emotions somehow some way this has. meaning to her somehow she got. gratification or got something for this. otherwise she wouldn't have gone through. the trouble of doing it so it clearly. does something for her we just don't. know exactly what that is by the way I I. want to make it clear there's another. possibility too could it be a being. around young children I hate to say it. but I also thought about that as well.

and and to be clear there is harm to. other student well not other she's not a. student there is harm to the students of. her being there so right I mean if we. could talk about those two points maybe. the aspect of being near miners but also. the aspect of the harm to the students. maybe not necessarily in a sexual way. but maybe she enjoys the power. differential maybe she enjoys knowing. everything that she knows and pulling. the strings and pulling the wool over. their eyes and maybe she enjoys that. power in some way I I read uh one.

account that she they thought she was. very smart you know she knew the. homework she knew what to do do you. think that is a going into that that. power Dynamic maybe the fact that she I. mean she was so. Advanced I don't know that she was. Advanced but what she did was something. that probably any worker who's a state. worker who knows the system would do so. she knows all the cracks in the system. she knows all the places that she can. slip in and she's a trained social work. worker so she's been trained in mental.

health she knows the types of patients. that would pres present in this. situation and she knew that being a. foster child would get her instantaneous. admission because it's federal law so I. think this is just someone who maybe. wasn't necessarily an evil genius if you. will but it was someone who had the. training and had the knowledge and. experience to get what she wanted and. doing it u in a in a nefarious and a. ctitious way but but to be clear this is. is harmful to their classmates right.

they said that they were shocked. Disturbed to find out what. happened you know I don't know because. we don't know what she told them we. don't know how close she got to them uh. clearly um it's not going to um boost. their faith in humanity in any way you. know I I've heard um back when I was in. college there was someone who was in. high school who faked their transcripts. and got into Yale and they were in Yale. for a year with a B average I remember.

his name too and the way he got caught. was he was started telling people that. he was on a minor league baseball team. and they started looking him up and the. whole story fell apart and it was kind. of funny because here's this guy that. had no qualifications to get into Yale. but was doing it for a year with a B. average so uh that also sort of brought. the whole Mystique of the ivy league. into Focus but but I think but the point. is yes I mean I think for the other. students that she came into contact with. again this was not over video this was.

in person I do think it was harmful to. them yeah especially at a young age. right you're dealing with trust issues. as is um you talked about here's. something that I find interesting um. when we talk about mental health we. always have that conversation about did. the person really understand what they. were doing this was an elaborate scheme. impersonation forgery so as much as this. could have been motivated and caused by. mental illness there was a conscious. effort there was a conscious. understanding that what she was doing.

was illegal. right yes that's that's really what it. comes down to knowing the difference. between right and wrong and even if she. was mentally ill even if you know she. was out of touch with reality there. shows on her part a very methodical. effort to conceal her identity to forge. these documents um it requires a lot of. planning a lot of forethought to get. this done this was not something that. she did where she didn't know what she.

was doing in my opinion I I have to ask. you about the defense um because you. would wonder what they would say and. their defense attorney and obviously. it's still kind of in the early stages. but the defense attorney said quote. obviously U Miss huitt is a young lady. who's got significant mental health. challenges that's abundantly clear. what's not abundantly clear is how. whatever happened was allowed to happen. at the Boston public school system for. as long as it was I find that to be a. very interesting statement from a. defense attorney almost acknowledging. what your client did um but putting the.

blame on the school system which I think. is fair um because the question I always. had is how were they able to be fooled. uh for so long did they not know that. she was older than she said so two parts. there what you think about what the. defense said and number two how do you. think so many people were. fooled I think that's a good defense. attorney I think basically he's taking. the burden off her and putting it onto. the school system which I think is.

something a good attorney would do if. they're zealously representing you as. far as people not knowing and as far as. how she was able to pull it off I think. it's one of those things where the. system is not really designed for. someone like this for someone who knows. all the ins and outs and all the. intricacies and they're able to fool the. system because it's not you know it's. not Fort Knox it's not a bank um it's a. school system so there probably are not. safeguards in place that are to the. level or to the extreme that a motivated. person could not be deterred or stopped.

by the way I mentioned that she may have. had help there was somebody posing as. her father trying to get her transferred. that's one of the allegations I read if. someone was aiding her in this now I'm. starting to also wonder if it's not just. some sort of mental disease this kind of. fascination with being back in school. but if it could be something else um. some benefit about trying to get in. school I don't know I mean yeah what. what do you make of that aspect well. then you know if he was conspiring with. her I mean I think actually he's.

probably uh in some ways more culpable. than she is because now if he has no. history of mental illness and he's just. going along with it and he's encouraging. it and he's complicit in it that's. someone to me uh that's at least as. culpable if not more if she if he was. aiding her in this and just to focus. again what you said the idea that she. posed to somebody as a child in need um. that was also different right that I I. may not just be a way to get into the. school easier but also where she wanted.

to apply this behavioral treatment. center but also the idea that she came. from a troubled place is that someone. who is looking to be a victim so I was. reading that because she was a foster. child and a child in need that there was. some aspect of federal law that would. cause her to be admitted quickly than. someone else that was just applying off. the street so maybe she did that to get. in quicker but you know again she had to. know at some level that she was going to. be exposed there were just too.

many you know details that were going on. here and any one of them could have. collapsed that would have exposed the. whole thing so again if I'm her attorney. I'm saying well clearly she knew at some. point she was going to get caught. because the story was so complicated you. know that that old saying the more. complicated the plumbing the easier it. is to stuff it up I think in this. particular case I think that's true. because there were just so many details. that were involved that if any one of. them fell through that she would be you. know she would be.

exposed unbelievable Dr Daniel bobber. thanks so much for coming on really. appreciate it sir and uh enjoy watching. you know uh 21 and 22 Jump stre 22 Jump. y of course I kind of want to see it. after this but uh yeah crazy case thank. you so much sir take care now thank you. all right everybody that is all we have. for you right now here on sidebar thank. you so much for joining us please. subscribe on Apple podcast Spotify. YouTube wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Jesse Weber speak to you next.

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