School's out Forever

34-year-old Texas woman pretending to be high school student arrested

They say life imitates art, but sometimes life imitates a Law and Order: SVU episode.

Such is the curious case of Charity Anne Johnson, a 34-year-old Texas woman who we can only assume didn't hate high school enough the first time around. Johnson was arrested on Sunday in the East Texas town of Longview after a few strange facts came to light, mainly that she was allegedly a 34-year-old grown woman pretending to be a 15-year-old high school sophomore. (The Associated Press states that police say Johnson is 34, although jail records list her as 31.)

According to KLTV, Johnson had been attending New Life Christian School as a 10th grader since October 2013. Using the name "Charite Stevens," Johnson was reportedly able to enroll despite a lack of transcripts by telling school administrators that she was previously home-schooled. If the B-roll on the KLTV video is any indication, Charite was really crushing sophomore year, too, earning 100 percent on a literature test.

In March, she was taken in by Tamica Lincoln after telling Lincoln that she was abused by her biological father and in need of stable housing. During their time together, Lincoln says she went so far as to attend teachers meetings on behalf of Johnson, as well as buy her clothes and shoes.

It was while living with Lincoln, and being mentored by Ray Ward, that questions about Johnson's real age were raised. The pair took their concerns to authorities, who arrested Johnson at an area apartment after she allegedly gave them a false name.

As news of Johnson's arrest spread, KLTV reports that reaction at the school was shock, with both teachers and students breaking down in tears. Johnson is currently being held in the Gregg County Jail on a $500 bond for failure to identify/ giving false information.

If you can't possibly wait to see what happens in this case, there really is an SVU episode that deals with this exact story line. Instead of a 34-year-old, the woman is 28 and she ends up getting hit by a car and having her jaw wired shut. So, there you have it.

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Shelter to Service

Dripping Springs nonprofit trains service dogs rescued from shelters

Photo courtesy of KVUE

The group estimates that it's gotten more than 1,000 dogs out of the shelter system.

For the past 35 years, a service dog training nonprofit in Dripping Springs has transformed unwanted dogs into essential partners for Texans living with significant challenges.

Sheri Soltes, founder and CEO of Service Dogs, Inc., says the dogs they train help serve people with hearing or mobility disabilities. The canines also comfort those enduring traumatic events.

In a time where most animal shelters in Central Texas are over capacity, Service Dogs, Inc. is handing out second chances to pups with potential to make a difference in people’s lives.

“They're sort of like the cousins to guide dogs,” Soltes said. “Except we're unique because we get our dogs from animal shelters instead of having a breeding program. So we help the dog and we help the person.”

She says the nonprofit can’t adopt every dog because the pups must meet specific qualifications, narrowing down from their age to their temperament.

Soltes says dogs must be at least a year and a half old in order to be X-rayed to assess their health, must be extremely people-oriented and should be comfortable being in public settings.

She says Service Dogs, Inc. may bring back one out of 500 dogs in a shelter.

“We've probably trained well over a 1,000, probably closer to 1,200 dogs by this time over 36 years. Any dog that we adopt from a shelter, if it doesn't complete the training, we don't take it back to the shelter, will find it a good pet home. So, they're going to win either way with us,” Soltes said.

Depending on the pooches’ temperament and personality, they’ll be trained in any and all of four programs available.

Soltes says the nonprofit trains the canines to be hearing dogs that can alert people who are deaf or hard of hearing. They could be trained for people with mobility disabilities, learning to open and close doors or steady someone’s balance.

She says they also train dogs to work in areas devastated by catastrophic storms, in courthouses in the victim's assistance departments or with first responders struggling with their mental health.

“They're not always the right tool for every kind of job, but they're very, very helpful,” she said.

Read the full story and watch the video at KVUE.com.

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