Before that, she was abandoned by her drug-addict mother and incarcerated father. Charity had no transcripts because she had been homeschooled by a foster family, she said. Why would he? He had known most of his 27 students since they were in diapers one of them had met Charity at work and told her about the school.
Newlin didn’t ask to see Charity’s birth certificate. Her “guardian,” a young woman Charity said was her sister, helped Charity fill out paperwork at the tiny private school, run out of a church in a quiet neighborhood by pastor Stuart Newlin. Charity Johnson enrolled in 10th grade at New Life Christian School in Longview, Texas, a few weeks before her 34th birthday.īack then, in October 2013, Charity said her name was "Charite Stevens" and that she was born in 1997 instead of 1979, making her nearly 16, just old enough to score an after-school job at McDonald’s.