Texas mother arrested after posing as daughter to gain entry to school

SAN ELIZARIO, Texas — A woman was arrested for trespassing on school grounds after posing as her daughter for nearly an entire school day, investigators said.

The San Elizario Independent School District notified the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office after learning about a video Casey Garcia posted to social media documenting her day at school as her daughter, KWTX reported.

The videos is titled “Going to school as my 13yr old daughter (middle school edition).” In it, Garcia wears a yellow hooded sweatshirt, “skinny jeans” and a black face mask. She is seen taking selfies in a school bathroom mirror. She also eats lunch in the school cafeteria without wearing a mask. She said that someone commented that she looked 35, but otherwise she made it to the next class. She was caught at the end of the school day and sent to the principal’s office.

She posted a 12-minute video Thursday detailing why she went to school as her daughter. She called her actions a social experiment to test the school’s security and to show how inattentive staff is to students.

“I didn’t do this to get views. I didn’t do this to get likes. I didn’t do this so people could be mad at me and I could never walk around El Paso again,” she said. “I wanted to see if I could make it the entire day (at school) without anybody noticing.”

She said she made it to seventh period before a teacher noticed. She said most of the staff was more concerned about her walking around with her phone out.

“I did this to prove a point, I’m a parent, I proved that I could get through the public school system and I made it without any problem. We need better security at our schools,” she said.

Investigators met with school administrators. Later, they went to Garcia’s house to serve two warrants, one for criminal trespass and the other for tampering with government records. She took video of the encounter and shared it on social media.

She was jailed on those charges as well as an unrelated traffic warrant. She was released on $7,908 bond.

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