


City Councilor At-Large Erin Murphy has called for a hearing to investigate the 32-year-old woman who enrolled in three BPS high schools throughout the 2022-23 school year.
“I filed this Hearing Order and looking forward to answers from authorities about whether the children in our care were harmed in any way,” Murphy tweeted Monday morning. “Concerned that as a former (Department of Children and Families) social worker, this imposter may have had inappropriate interactions with other vulnerable children in Mass.”
BPS Superintendent Mary Skipper announced last week in a letter to families that an adult had used multiple pseudonyms and a complex fraud to enroll in three high schools during the school year: Jeremiah Burke, English and Brighton high schools.
The woman was ordered to stay away from BPS facilities and, along with two alleged accomplices who posed as foster parents, is under active investigation by Boston police. The woman, authorities confirmed, was employed as a social worker with the state until February.
Murphy’s hearing order specifies the adult enrolled at Burke High School in October 2022, while she was still working for DCF, and enrolled in the other two high school near the end of the school year.
The order expresses the intent to investigate how the woman was able to trick the system, give more information on the direction of the police investigation and push for authorities to investigate whether any children were harmed and the perpetrators’ intent.
Mayor Michelle Wu also spoke on the subject during a WGBH segment aired Monday. The investigation has still not found any students who were harmed by the individual, she said, but police are “going to keep digging very seriously.”
Wu also clarified why a “human trafficking” box had been checked on an initial police report on the incident, saying that “is a pathway (police) were intending to investigate and are continuing to investigate.”
The investigation has shown that the individual diverted resources that belonged to the young people of Boston, Wu said, citing “multiple examples” of supports and activities she took advantage of.
“This is someone who appears to have known the system very well and how to pull together various quite sophisticated pieces to deceive and fraudulently enroll multiple times,” Wu said.