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A 24-year-old man stands accused of enrolling in a Ohio high school in Wood County and posing as a teenage boy for over a year and a half. He even played on the high school’s junior varsity soccer and swim teams.
The man was arrested by Perrysburg, Ohio police on Monday, May 19 and charged with felony forgery for allegedly using fake documents to enroll in and attend Perrysburg High School. According to a statement on the school district’s website, he was able to attend the high school from January 2024 to May 2025.
The school district explained, in the interest of “transparency and the safety of all students,” that the man “had been enrolled at Perrysburg High School under the name and age of a 16-year-old unaccompanied minor on January 11, 2024, in accordance with federal and state requirements for enrolling students experiencing homelessness or without a legal guardian.”
During his time enrolled there, he obtained an Ohio’s driver’s license and social security number and received federal Temporary Protective Status from the U.S. Immigration Department. He also submitted a completed application for a VISA with assistance of Advocating Opportunities which provides free legal assistance and had guardianship granted to a Perrysburg family by Wood County Juvenile Court.
He was busted when the guardians who had taken responsibility for him “contacted the school district to report that they had received information indicating that he was not a minor, but in fact a 24-year-old adult.”
His involvement in the athletic programs was reported to the Ohio High School Athletics Association, who wrote in a statement, “As your Superintendent indicated, this case involves highly unusual and deceptive circumstances that impacted many local, state and federal agencies, and your school had no way of knowing/combating this falsification. As such, there are no penalties or forfeitures which will be required of your sports teams on which this individual played.”
The school district added in its statement that “while the deception was complex and far-reaching, Perrysburg Schools acted swiftly and appropriately once concerns were raised.”
He was jailed on a $50,000 bond, according to Fox 8 News, and is due back in court for a preliminary hearing on May 29.