Boston social worker, 32, pleads 'not guilty' to posing as special needs child to enroll at several public schools

A 32-year-old social worker has pleaded not guilty to nine indictments after she allegedly posed as a 13-year-old foster child to enroll at three Boston Public Schools.

Shelby Hewitt, 32, has been accused by prosecutors of pretending to be a traumatized child with special needs to carry out an elaborate enrollment scheme.

On Tuesday, she pleaded not guilty to five felony forgery counts, identity fraud, larceny over $1,200, and public employee standards of conduct violation, according to WCVB.

Court documents state that Hewitt enrolled at Brighton High School, English High School in Jamaica Plain, and Burke High School in Dorchester, allegedly claiming to be as young as 13. She attended all three schools simultaneously at various points in the 2022 to 2023 school year.

Prosecutors said she posed as a traumatized special needs child and unsettlingly formed friendships with fellow students, deceiving them into believing she was a classmate and telling them false information about her family, Daily Mail reports.

She "created multiple names and dates of birth for herself to propagate this intricate false narrative of being an extremely traumatized child with significant special educational needs and emotional needs," said Assistant Suffolk District Attorney Ashley Polin.

"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," said Polin.

During the time of Hewitt's alleged fraudulent stint, she worked as a social worker at the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families and collected a $54,000 salary.

Defense attorney Timothy Flaherty told the courts that Hewitt is not a danger to anyone and has a history of mental health issues.

"Obviously, Ms. Hewitt is a young lady who's got significant mental health challenges. That's abundantly clear," Flaherty said, according to Daily Mail. "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."

While attending multiple high schools as an adult, Hewitt allegedly asked to be called both "Daneilla" and "Ellie Alessandra Blake."

Parents of students at these schools are irate and blame the mayor and superintendent for allowing this disturbing behavior to occur.
 

"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," Robin Williams, a parent of a student at one of the schools, told the outlet.

"You're a social worker. You're supposed to be protecting children. Why are you doing this? What are you getting out of it?" Williams said after the arraignment.

Prosecutors said that Hewitt had purchased the domain name @masstate.us and used it to construct two fictitious DCF employees with illegitimate phone numbers and email addresses to carry out the scheme.

She allegedly stole the identity of a child in state custody to enroll in the Walden Behavioral Treatment Center under the guise of suffering from an eating ailment.

While at Burke High School, Hewitt had joined the girl's basketball team but opted out of taking team photos on claims that her foster parents wouldn't allow her to be in them, according to Daily Mail.

Two of her former teammates told the outlet that she had ironically chosen the jersey number "32."

The motive for Hewitt's alleged behavior remains unclear.

Hewitt's former classmates were "disturbed" and astonished to learn that Hewitt, who had worked for the state until February, was actually in her 30s.

A student named Janell Lamons, 15, who sat with Hewitt during lunch, told the Boston Globe: "I thought that she was 16, 17 - at least [that's] what she told me - and she was super smart. Whenever we needed help with math, she would help us during math class."

"We all want to know why...somebody that old would choose to go back to high school to do the work," another student said.

Prosecutors said that Hewitt utilized her expertise in social work to gain access, knowing that by claiming to be a foster child, the school would be obligated to enroll her promptly in accordance with federal law, which bypasses the customary enrollment waiting period for documentation. 

Authorities were alerted to Hewitt in June when school officials at English High School noticed irregularities in her enrollment paperwork.

Hewitt was released on a $5,000 bond and has been ordered to stay away from people under the age of 18. She will return to court on Feb. 2 and her trial is scheduled for next fall, according to WCVB.