Venezuelan man posed as teen, attended Ohio HS for more than year, officials say

A 24-year-old Venezuelan man is accused of posing as an unaccompanied minor to attend an Ohio high school in a case school officials described as “highly unusual and deceptive.”

Anthony Emmanuel Labrador Sierra, who attended Perrysburg High School for more than a year beginning as an apparent 16-year-old last January, was arrested during a traffic stop on felony forgery charges, school and police officials said Tuesday.

Labrador, who had been a member of the school's JV soccer and swim teams, used fraudulent documents during the enrollment process, the Perrysburg Police Department said in a statement.

The district described the allegations as "heartbreaking" and said that staff and local families had sought to support someone "they believed was a vulnerable teen. Their compassion reflects the best of our community. Though trust was violated, we remain proud of those who chose to help."

Labrador was scheduled to appear in a Wood County courtroom Tuesday. It wasn’t immediately clear if he has a lawyer to speak on his behalf.

In a statement, Perrysburg Schools said that Labrador portrayed himself as an unaccompanied minor when he sought to attend the district and was enrolled in accordance with federal and state requirements for students without a legal guardian or experiencing homelessness. 

At the time, he provided documentation showing immigration authorities had given him temporary protected status and a juvenile court granted guardianship to a family in Perrsyburg, the school district said.

Labrador also had an Ohio driver’s license and Social Security card, according to the statement.

The district alleged that those documents were falsified.

After his guardians contacted the school last week saying they'd obtained information that he was a 24-year-old adult, administrators met with Labrador, who denied the allegation and said that the birth certificate he provided during enrollment was accurate, according to the district.

Labrador was ordered to stay away from school grounds while officials investigated the allegations and reached out to local police, according to the statement. The school's investigation uncovered social media posts from people claiming to be Labrador's real family, the district said.

"This case involves highly unusual and deceptive circumstances that impacted many local, state and federal agencies," the district said. "The school district has reviewed its actions regarding enrollment and is confident proper legal channels were followed to provide support for an individual presenting themselves as an unaccompanied minor as spelled out in the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act."

That law, passed in 1987, requires states to ensure that homeless youth have access to the same public education as other students.

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