BOSTON — A trial date has been set for a woman accused of posing as a teen and fraudulently enrolling as a Boston Public Schools student.
Shelby Hewitt, a former social worker who was 32 years old when she used fake identities to pass as a student at three different city high schools in 2022 and 2023, appeared in court on Tuesday.
Hewitt was expected to enter a plea deal that would have resolved her case, but that didn’t happen. Instead, a judge scheduled the start of her trial for Feb. 9, 2026.
Boston police and the Suffolk District Attorney’s Office began investigating after the principal at the English High School reported that a student, later identified as Hewitt, was being bullied.
At various times during the 2022-2023 school year, she attended Jeremiah E. Burke High School, Brighton High School, and English High School while using the student transfer process and enrolling under multiple pseudonyms, officials said.
The Massachusetts Department of Children and Families said Hewitt is a former employee of the state agency and says she was hired as a social worker by DCF from 2016-2017, during parts of 2018, and from December 2021 through February 2023.
In 2023, Hewitt was indicted on a slew of charges, including fraud, forgery, and larceny.
Hewitt’s attorney, Timothy Flaherty, has argued that his client has suffered from a lifelong history of mental health challenges.
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