YEARNED FOR DAYS OF YOUTH

Why ‘posed as HS gal’

The 29-year-old woman who enrolled in a New Jersey high school posing as a teenage student was just hoping to relive her glory days, according to her lawyer.

Hyejeong Shin, who allegedly forged a birth certificate to act as a 16-year-old and attend classes at New Brunswick HS, wanted to return to “an environment that she looks back on fondly,” her lawyer Darren Gelber told New York’s ABC-7.

Shin was indicted by a grand jury in Middlesex County, NJ, for providing a false government document and hindering her own prosecution.

Shin (inset) pleaded not guilty in court on Monday.

The Rutgers University graduate had attended high-school classes for four days before school administrators found out she was a woman pushing 30 and not a teenage girl.

Gelber said his client — who had moved to the US from South Korea to attend a private boarding school at 16 — had no ill intentions and was simply lonely.

He said she longed for an environment similar to her boarding-school days surrounded by friends and hoped to recreate it in New

Brunswick.

“At no time was anyone or any student in danger and this entire case is more about my client wanting to return to a place of safety and welcoming and an environment that she looks back on fondly and nothing more,” Gelber told the news station.

New Brunswick Police have said that they do not believe Shin’s attempt to attend the local high school came from a desire to inflict harm to students, faculty or staff.

She is now hoping to be accepted into a pre-trial intervention program to avoid jail time, Gelber said during Monday’s hearing.

Shin then plans to return to South Korea, the attorney said.