Social Worker, 32, Assumed Identity of Traumatized Child To Pose As Student at 3 Schools: Prosecutors

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Shelby Hewitt, a woman in her 30s with a graduate degree, is accused of assuming the identity of a real child in state custody to pose as a student as young as 13 at three Boston area schools ... all while working for the Department of Children and Families.

A 32-year-old woman stands accused of posing as a student at three Boston area schools.

Shelby Hewitt plead not guilty to nine indictments last week at Suffolk Superior Court, as new details emerged about how she allegedly abused her position as a social worker with the Department of Children and Families to impersonate a child with special needs.

The state employee faces three counts of forgery, two counts of forgery at common law, one count of uttering, one count of identity fraud, one count of larceny over $1,200 and one count of making false claims to her employer.

According to prosecutors, Hewitt used knowledge she gained from working for the Department of Children and Families to carry out a scheme to trick the Boston Public School system into believing she was a child as young as 13.

Last week Hewitt's legal representative Timothy Flaherty told Suffolk Superior Court, per NBC Boston, "Obviously Ms. Hewitt 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."

The Boston Public School system declined to comment when approached by NBC Boston, however some parents are blaming Superintendent Mary Skipper and Boston Mayor Michelle Wu.

"To hear that this grown woman who crosses three schools within the year sitting in the classroom with my daughter and a whole bunch of other kids – that's very scary," one local mother told NBC following Hewitt's arraignment. "You're a social worker. You're supposed to be protecting children. Why are you doing this? What are you getting out of it?"

According to prosecutors, Hewitt obtained the domain @masstate.us and utilized it to create two fake Department of Children and Families employees, with fictitious contact information in December 2021. They claim Hewitt then used the real identity of a child in the DCF system, in state custody, along with the fake government aliases to enroll herself in the Walden Behavioral Treatment Center for an eating disorder and three different Boston Public Schools, per NBC.

This was all allegedly done while she was still under the employ of the DCF, receiving a state paid salary of $54K.

Assistant Suffolk District Attorney Ashley Polin said last week: "The defendant created multiple names and dates of birth for herself to propagate this intricate but false narrative of being an extremely traumatized child with significant special educational needs and emotional needs. In reality, the defendant was a woman in her early 30s who had attended both college and graduate school and was employed as a social worker with the Department of Children and Families."

Hewitt has been ordered to stay away from the child, who she stole the identity from, and all schools and children. She is currently out on a $5,000 cash bail.