A 34-year-old woman is in a Texas County jail this week for allegedly lying about her identity.
According to KETK-TV, police say Charity Anne Johnson used the alias “Charity Stevens” to enroll at New Life Christian School. Johnson had been posing as 15-year-old “Charity Stevens” since October, 2013.
WLOX-TV reports students and teachers at the school were crying and “couldn’t believe” Charity was not who she said she was.
Officers with the Longview Police Department first learned of Johnson’s deception Sunday night when she gave officers a false name and birthday. She was then arrested.
Johnson’s former principal, Stewart Newlin, told KETK she didn’t believe Johnson was really 34 years old:
I am waiting more evidence from police to prove her age. Everyone at the school is shocked because she looks like a teenager. She claims she was home-schooled, so she had no school records when she came to the school in October. She was very well-liked, and the whole campus is shocked and in disbelief.
Johnson was staying with a woman named Tamika Lincoln, who also believed she was 15. Lincoln reportedly “acted as Charity’s guardian and even met with Charity’s 10th grade teachers” at the school.
Lincoln told WLOX-TV:
I just don’t know why she did it. Why put yourself and others at risk to do something like this? I have deep concerns about her being who we don’t know she is, and then she’s out there at the school.
Click here to read more on this story from KETK.