Lincoln Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Paul Gausman and Associate Superintendent for Educational Services Dr. Matt Larson addressed the media Friday morning in a Q&A session pertaining to the recent situation of a 26-year-old posing as a 17-year-old fake student, and successfully enrolling in and attending approximately 54 days of school during the 2022-23 school year, at two separate Lincoln high schools, Lincoln Northwest and Southeast.
“This is a very serious situation and we are concerned that this happened. Once it was reported to us that an adult was posing as a student, we turned it over to law enforcement to begin investigating,” said Dr. Gausman, “Our focus now is to help police with their investigation and encourage anyone with information that will help with this investigation to contact the Lincoln Police
Department.”
26-year-old Zachary Scheich was reported to have provided fraudulent copies of his birth certificate, immunization records, physicals, and transcripts. Gausman said they followed all state and federal requirements for enrolling this student. Scheich enrolled online. “There was nothing provided by this individual that didn’t match what we get from our other students who are enrolling at our schools. This individual also matched the size and look of a lot of our students. He was 5’4” and 120 pounds. If you look at him next to other students in the school, he looked like the age he represented himself to be.”
LPS is conducting a thorough review of their enrollment procedures and different ways they can verify a student’s identity and the documents provided. Officials are working to identify extra safeguards to be put in place, including opportunities to have multiple in person conversations with parents and guardians of enrolling students.
The full Q&A media conference from LPS is available below. Click here to read the full statement sent to parents. Click here to view the full police report including Scheich’s charges.