2210: The High School Hoax Update

PRETEND

Javier Leiva

True Crime, Society & Culture, Technology

4.7 • 2.2K Ratings

🗓️ 30 September 2025

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

A 32-year-old woman enrolled herself in three Boston high schools and passed as a teenager. She sat in classrooms, made friends with freshmen, and even joined the girls basketball team. She wore number 32 on her jersey, which also happened to be her real age. This is the story of Shelby Hewitt, a state social worker who lived a double life. For two years, she convinced students, teachers, and administrators that she was a foster kid with nowhere else to go. She built fake social workers and false backstories to make her cover believable. When PRETEND first aired this episode, there were more questions than answers. Was Shelby trying to relive her youth? Was she gathering information on the kids she worked with? Or was she doing this just for kicks? In this replay, you will hear the original story and then get the latest updates. Since the episode first aired, new details have emerged about the extent of her lies and who got caught up in them. We will also examine the criminal charges she is currently facing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	True Story Media.
0:07.4	Hey guys, it's me, Javier.
0:09.0	I have a brand new long, deep dive series that it's almost ready for you.
0:14.6	But I'm going to delay it one last week because I need a little bit more time.
0:20.4	I want to drop the first three episodes all at once so that you could binge it because
0:24.9	the first episode is just not enough.
0:27.5	So yeah, look out for that.
0:28.8	The first three episodes will be dropping next week on Pretend Plus on Apple Podcasts and
0:34.5	Patreon.
0:35.2	But today I want to revisit a story that we published a few years ago when it first came out.
0:41.8	And there were so many questions.
0:44.0	But it was a fascinating story.
0:45.5	It's the story of Shelby Hewitt.
0:47.4	She is the 30-year-old woman who posed as a high school kid in Boston.
0:54.0	And she would have gotten away with it, too,
0:56.5	if it weren't for those meddling kids.
0:58.9	So listen to the episode.
1:00.4	I just listened to it, just to refresh my memory,
1:03.0	and wow, it's such a crazy story.
1:05.0	But as you listen, you're going to have tons of questions,
1:07.3	and hopefully we'll have answers for you at the end of that episode.
1:11.6	A lot of people have been coming out of the woodwork, former friends, roommates, and there's a
	...

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