The 28-year-old girl who allegedly faked being a teen to enroll in an NYC college claimed she fled an abusive marriage and struggled with an consuming dysfunction that landed her in a psych ward.
Kacy Claassen informed her hometown information outlet in Hays, Kansas, about three hours northwest of Wichita, that she was unemployed and homeless and utilizing a nonprofit’s transitional housing program to rebuild her life.
“It was undoubtedly a humbling expertise,” a then-25-year-old Claassen informed the Hays Submit in March 2023, claiming she had briefly misplaced custody of her then 2-year-old daughter due to her monetary points.
“I don’t remorse marrying my husband, I do want I’d have seen indicators sooner earlier than I married. However each piece of life is a studying expertise, I’ve discovered. I’ve no exhausting emotions towards him in any respect. What he does along with his life is his life. What he did to me was his alternative,” she stated.
Kansas courtroom data present Claassen filed for divorce from Kenneth D. Ault in August 2023. Ault couldn’t be reached for remark.
Public data point out there’s just one Kacy Claassen within the nation who is identical age as the girl accused of mendacity to pose as a scholar at Westchester Sq. Academy within the Bronx.
Years earlier, Claassen claimed to have had vital struggles with psychological well being points, together with 5 suicide makes an attempt, melancholy, and grief.
A pal’s suicide allegedly drove the girl to ponder her personal dying, she wrote in a 2018 publish she wrote on Psychological Well being Educator AnneMoss Rogers “The Emotionally Bare Weblog.”
“I’m unhappy to say this however, shortly after she died, I needed to take my very own life… However then I remembered I had tried 5 instances earlier and didn’t full them,” she wrote. “I thank God daily that I didn’t die.”
Claassen additionally claimed she suffered from an consuming dysfunction and spent three years in a psych ward because of this. The Submit couldn’t verify the declare.
“I used to be anorexic… My dad and mom wont even let me get a job. They wont even let me transfer out by myself. Once they discovered that I used to be anorexic, they admitted to a psych hospital in Wisconsin. I stayed there for 3 years,” she alleged.
“My dad and mom don’t care about me,” she whined on within the piece.
“My dad and mom are going to kick me out and that implies that im going to be homeless…. I don’t wish to be homeless and pregnant. I would like (or reasonably want) that there’s somebody or some household or one who would love me and look after me and assist me,” she wrote.
Claassen alleged stated her identify was Shamara Rashad and used a phony ID for 2 weeks whereas she attended the Bronx college, stated authorities, who charged her with prison impersonation and trespassing. Claassen pleaded not responsible and was launched.
Rogers, who final communicated with Claassen in 2018, stated she feared that the younger girl had been human trafficked and should have been despatched to the highschool to recruit others.
“It sounds a bit like human trafficking; they get folks to recruit folks into labor or intercourse, this seems like a sample that I’ve heard of,” Rogers stated.
“She informed me she was legally blind, if she was disabled not directly that would make her weak,” stated Rogers, who didn’t suppose Claassen was mendacity about her psychological well being points however described her as “a bit off.”
“Poor factor, I bear in mind her as any individual who struggled,” she stated.
Claassen’s dad and mom didn’t reply to The Submit’s requests for remark. Claassen couldn’t be reached and her lawyer didn’t reply to The Submit’s a number of requests for remark.
