1601: The High School Hoax (Shelby Hewitt)

Speaker: Daniela wasn't like the rest of the high school freshmen. In history class, she acted like she couldn't read and write, so the teacher had to, most of the time, write for her. So the teacher would have to come and write for her? Is that what you're saying? Daniela, you know, she comes to class and then the teacher would like write for her on a piece of paper and then she'll have Daniela to write whatever she could write because she didn't have really good handwriting at that time. Before you start firing off those angry reviews or nasty emails. It's important to note that Daniella did not have a learning disability. It's just that something about her wasn't adding up. So she was in math class with me. She was definitely smart in math because me and my friend, we struggled deeply in math. So she was definitely, like, she had everything top to bottom with no help, no nothing. Like, she was definitely smart in math. I'll give her credit for that. Yeah. And so she kind of, like, almost tutored you guys, right? Yeah, basically. Janelle, the 16 year old high school student from Boston, is telling me about Daniela, a friend she met on the first day of school. She introduced herself. I introduced myself. She asked me, like, what school I came from, and she's just started talking to my other friends that were in that circle as well. And then we just started eating together in the library, just talking about how we didn't like the Berg and how our classes were going. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The Berk, as in Jeremiah E. Berk High School in Boston. Daniella and Janelle, both freshmen, were not only nervous about starting a new school, they were legitimately concerned for their safety. Just months before this happened. And we have just learned that a student was stabbed inside a high school in Boston. Then, a few weeks later, this happened. A student shot outside a Dorchester school. The shooting is outside Jeremiah Burke High School on Washington Street. Janelle and Daniela didn't have a whole lot in common, except for the fact that they were concerned about Burke High School. But despite their differences, Janelle made sure to include Daniela in her friend group anyway. And did she approach you or did you approach her? Well, I approached her since she was a new student and she was nice and quiet. She didn't really have any friends So I introduced myself to her first And did you ever get any vibes that maybe there's something wrong with her? Like did she seem different from the other kids? I mean she did bring a trash bag full of clothes to school I kind of find that weird because nobody else does it Why did she bring the bag? Do you know? She claims that she was going to a new foster home. But she claims that she was homeless, and that she was moving to different foster cares, and that her father, I guess, died or went to jail or something. She said that her mom died when she was younger. She said that she did not like her foster mother. She's too controlling. When you first met her, you said you didn't suspect that something was wrong with her? No. Like she actually, to you, she looked like a ninth grader? No, not really, but I didn't really think anything of it. Yeah, I mean, why would you, right? Yes, and we exchange phone numbers, and we used to talk mainly all the time, just about classes. What about, like, boys? Did you guys ever talk about boys? No. Why was that funny? Why is that funny that I asked that? Because, um, me and my friends, we talk about boys sometimes, but I didn't talk about boys with her or anything. She would talk to my friend about foster homes, about how she didn't like how kids were getting treated, and that they deserve, like, a better life and things like that, that she wanted to help them out. Daniela was quiet, lonely, and minded her own business. With the exception of Janelle and her crew, she really didn't have friends. Daniela wasn't like the other 15 year old kids. Not because she said she was in foster care, but Or had trouble reading and writing. Nah, it's because she wasn't a teenager. She was a grown 32 year old woman impersonating a high school student. Yeah, let that sink in. And she just didn't pull this off at Berk High. Daniela, whose real name is Shelby Hewitt, is accused of enrolling in three Boston schools under different aliases. At English high school, this 32 year old woman posed as a 13 year old. A 13 year old! How can a 32 year old pull off 13? If you want to see a picture of Shelby Hewitt, check out my TikTok or Instagram video about her linked in my show notes. Do it now, I'll wait. And while you're there, give the show a follow. Shameless plug, let's move on. Okay, so if you think that's bold enough, you might not be ready for this next part. Shelby Hewitt wasn't just a 32 year old posing as a high school kid. She was working for the Department of Children and Family Services as a social worker. I'm not kidding. She was collecting money from the state as a social worker during the same time she was taking math classes with Janelle. I'm Javier Leyva, and this is Pretend. Stories about real people pretending to be someone else. We all want a second chance, a do over. What would you do if you could go back to high school again? I know I would do everything differently. For one, I think I would be more assertive about asking girls out. I always assumed that they didn't like me, but looking back now, I totally had a chance with some of them. I could have been a total player, but I wasn't. I mostly sat on the sidelines. In fact, I was always more of a hit with my friends moms than I was with the girls my own age. Oh, well, enough about me, but in life, we don't always get a second chance. That is, unless you are Shelby Hewitt, better known at Burke High School as Daniella. So I was at home just chilling, relaxing, watching TV. So then that's when my friend, who still was at the Burke at that time, she reached out to me. She was like, Hey, Janelle, look, look, look, look. It's all over the news. It's about Daniella. Daniella. So I'm like. Let me go check it out. So I go check it out. I clicked on the link I mean they're talking about adult that was pretending to be a student Inside the burg at first I didn't know what student they were talking about until you know They said her name and eventually they showed the picture of her And how did how did you feel when you saw that? I mean, this was your friend I was definitely shocked because I didn't expect none of like this to happen And on top of that, I just didn't really know what to say my friend. She was very upset You I asked Janelle if she ever suspected Shelby was an imposter and she said no. I guess the question on everyone's mind is, why did she do it? From December 2021 to February 2023, for two years straight, Shelby Hewitt enrolled herself in three different high schools. Like I said earlier, she even posed as a 13 year old in one high school and a 15 year old at the others. She went by multiple aliases, Ellie Alessandra Blake and Daniela, as hard as it is to believe two school years went by and no one noticed. That is, until one day, a man, claiming to be Shelby's father, showed up at English high school wanting to withdraw his daughter from school. Who was this man and why was he withdrawing his so called daughter from school? He said because she was bullied. Shelby Hewitt had enrolled in that school just one week prior. So let's talk about how she got busted. The school noticed that some of the Department of Children and Family Forms were filled out incorrectly. And the social worker that she listed didn't actually exist. This set off some alarms. That's when they discovered that this student was actually 32 years old. So now the question is, how did she pull this off? It did help that Shelby won the genetic lottery and is petite and has a youthful look, but it takes a lot more than appearances to get away with this. Shelby Hewitt had to convince all those high school teachers and administrators that she was a foster kid. Prosecutors say that while Shelby Hewitt was working as a social worker, she created multiple names and date of births and even fake social workers with real names so that she could create the illusion that she was an extremely traumatized child with special educational needs. She even created email addresses that looked like official government emails that ended with at mass state dot us. Now that she has her documents and fake background story, her two phony counselors would email the school administrators. But here's what I want to know. Who is the man claiming to be her father? Was he in on it too? Prosecutors think so. They say Shelby Hewitt didn't act alone. So now let's talk about motive. Was Shelby Hewitt going back to high school to relive some kind of lost years? It says here that she joined the girls basketball team at one point. Yes. Another student said that he was in a basketball team for the boys or whatever, and he would see her play for the girls and she would come off as aggressive, but he didn't really go in much details about that. That's right. Shelby Hewitt wore jersey number 32 during the Burke High School basketball games. Her teammates noticed that an older man, who everyone assumed was her foster dad, would go to every game to watch her play. Some of the players noticed that when the team was photographed, Shelby Hewitt opted to stand outside the frame. Her excuse was that her foster parents wouldn't allow her to be photographed. So maybe Shelby Hewitt was re experiencing high school just for the kicks. But that alone doesn't make sense. Now that her secret is out, her basketball teammates are disturbed because this 32 year old woman saw these underage kids change in the locker room. And when asked about this, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu told WBUR that police and school administrators haven't found any evidence to support any inappropriate behaviors or incidents with students or the school staff. Here's Boston Mayor Michelle Wu. It's extremely disturbing, right, if someone told me that an adult, many decades removed from being in some of these age appropriate settings was back in school, that it's concerning. And as we've gone through the information so far, thank goodness that no evidence of students in harm has been uncovered. Mayor Wu is implying that no student was sexually harmed. But let's not kid ourselves. Children were psychologically harmed, betrayed, and confused. Just ask Janelle and her mother Robin. If she didn't get caught, here this is finding out. A 32 year old woman sitting among your children. We don't know, what is she was trying to do? Was she trying to, this is human trafficking? Was this sexual trafficking? What are you doing? Sitting among these children. You're a grown woman, you should have been working. Why? And that's the point is, why did you do it? That's what I think everybody wants to know. Yeah. I mean, I blame all of them. I blame Mayor Wu not stepping up as a mayor. Because I look at it for her, she has two children in public school too. And I'm like, how would you like it if some person pretended to be a kid that was sitting among your two boys? I don't believe she would like that. Yeah, would it be different if it were a man pretending to be a high school or middle school kid? That's what a lot of people been saying. Right. I don't think she would. I don't believe so. So, if she was just there for kicks, then why wouldn't she pick a less dangerous school than Burke High School? And she would go every single day to school? Yeah. Well, some days she couldn't go because she claimed she had a doctor's appointment and stuff. But most days, for the most part, she was there. You mentioned that you talked about not liking Burke High School. She didn't like it either? No, she did not like it. Janelle told me that sometimes Shelby would wander out of class, or sometimes she would find her crying for no apparent reason. Would she do that a lot? Would she cry a lot? Yeah, yeah. And looking back now, knowing what you know, do you think those were real tears? Like, did it feel genuine? That part, I don't know. Cause sometimes I will see her eyes red. I mean, she would like leave class sometimes and things like that. She had a counselor at Jeremiah Burke. I'm not sure why, but she was going to her sessions and things like that with this counselor. She did not like her for some reason. She stopped going to the sessions and she said that she's too much involved in her business. She didn't like how she was asking so many questions. But the irony of this whole thing is that she didn't even have to be there So if she didn't like the school, why the heck was she there? Yeah, that's what we're all trying to figure out. I mean that's like it's one thing to pose as a high school kid But she came in with a with a big story, right? Like she wasn't just like some kid. She was homeless She came from a bad home. She was in foster care And do you think that she was doing this for the drama that she was looking for attention or what? What do you think was her motivation that part? I don't know maybe to get information about the kids that she was working with as a dcf worker One That part, I don't really know. Okay, so chances are, Shelby Hewitt wasn't reliving her high school years. And maybe she was spying on her social work cases, but that doesn't make sense either. Wouldn't the kids recognize that their social worker is roaming the high school hallway and playing on the girls basketball team? So she kept to herself. Yeah. If you wouldn't have approached her, she probably wouldn't have approached you. Shelby Hewitt's attorney says that she has serious mental health issues. and is seeking treatment. He blames the public school system for failing to prevent the situation in the first place. Why did she do this? I think the bigger question is how? And what does that say about the safeguards in place? The why, you know, will be answered. But again, as I mentioned in court, this is a young lady who's got severe mental health challenges, and she's been dealing with it on a lifelong basis. It's well documented, and she's continuing to deal with it. What even gets me with her attorney, as you see in the media, he's constantly throwing up, oh, she got mental illness. She got mental illness. And I'm like, I don't care about her mental illness. Her mental illness didn't stop her to get two degrees. Her mental illness did not stop her to go to apply for a job for Department of Family and Children's Services as a social worker. Me as a parent, I am so sick and tired of these criminals. walking around in the community, committing crime. As soon as they get caught, the first thing come out of their mouth or their attorneys, they got mental illness. No, she was a 32 year old woman who knew exactly what she was doing. If she didn't get caught, she would continue doing it. So you know what? Shame on her. She got 9 counts. As far as I understand what the DA said, it carries up to 10 years in prison. And I believe she should get the full max. Shelby Hewitt pled not guilty to all counts. She's charged with several counts of forgery, uttering false writing, which means passing on those forged documents with intent to defraud. She's also charged with identity fraud, stealing over 1, 200, and violating standards of conduct for public employees. Shelby Hewitt was released on a 5, 000 cash bail. She used different names. She used, you know, different documents and things like that. So she would just jump in front. She basically crossed three schools though within a year. When a parent like myself, who is registering children, we have to give up so much information. , we have to get first before they even talk to us, they ask you for your name and then they ask you for identification. So a parent has to show identification. We have to show birth certificate, social security number. We have to show proof of income, proof of residence, a lot of stuff that a parent has to go through. And when they, and she faked all that. And she faked, right? All of that because she used the Department of Family Children's Services form. Shelby Hewitt went through a lot of trouble to fool everyone, but I still wanted to know, what was it like for Janelle to be friends with this imposter? Janelle, let me ask you a question. You know, you talked about how she had a bunch of sad stories, like really over the top sad stories, but does she ever have, like, Any fun, sir? Did she laugh or was it always drama? She laughed sometimes with us, it just depends, but she mostly had, like, a serious face. So, she was, like, quiet, she was shy. She just really kept to herself a lot of the times. But she only talked to me unless if I talked to her, like, you know, started a conversation or something. That's a weird thing, too, because, you know, high school is serious business. I mean, it's a step up from middle school. You have to do a lot of homework, a lot of work. Did she do her homework and all that? I know you said she struggled with reading and writing, but Well, she claims she did all of her assignments and things like that. I don't get it. Somehow, I have more questions than I have answers after digging into this. I want to know, why was she getting paid as a social worker if she was sitting in high school algebra? Her salary was 54, 000. Somebody needs to answer that question. Also, what steps are Boston City Schools taking to make sure that this won't happen again? And who is this mysterious man who is claiming to be her father? This is still a developing story and more answers will come out with time, especially if this goes to court. Shelby Hewitt's trial is currently scheduled to begin on September 9th, 2024.