A 23 Year Old Ukrainian National Successfully Posed As A Pennsylvania High School Student For Four Years

DailyMail-  On paper, Asher Potts was a model student.The 18-year-old had one of the highest GPAs at Harrisburg High School, was the runner-up for homecoming king and was an active member of the community.

But his teachers and classmates were left stunned after police revealed Potts isn't actually a teenager - but a 23-year-old Ukrainian national called Artur Samarin.

He had been masquerading as a schoolboy for four years because his visa had run out, and managed to achieve stunning credentials while doing so.

The alleged fraudster is accused of using a fake ID and social security card to apply for a place at the Pennsylvania school after moving from Eastern Europe.

He registered under the name Asher Potts in 2012, and by May 2014 he had a 4.16 GPA. He was also a member of the ROTC and Naval Sea Cadet Program. 

Until his arrest, Samarian was actively involved in school life and took part in a list of extra-curricular activities.

On the academic side he also excelled, juggling honors and AP classes, while enrolling in courses at the Harrisburg University of Science and Technology.




Let him stay! Let him stay! Let him stay! Honestly, the kid has earned it. He wanted to be an American so badly that he spent four years going to school with a bunch of bratty teens in Harrisburg. If I was a foreigner and someone made me stay in Harrisburg for a long weekend I would wrap my visa in an American flag, set it on fire, and turn myself in at the nearest embassy. 

It was only a matter of time before someone transcended age. If we are cool with men that decide they want to be women, and white people that decide they want to be black people, then we should be cool with 23 year olds that decide they want 1998 to be their birth year. Welcome to America baby! The land of opportunity! You can be whatever you want to be, even if what you want to be is a high school student that's just a few birthdays away from being able to rent a car. I wonder if he kept that Ukrainian ID. Probably could have bought off every kid in the entire school that knew his secret by supplying them with booze. And they say nobody likes you when you're 23? Psssh, I bet this dude was the life of the party when he walked into the basement at Billy's house with a case of Russian grain alcohol. 

​I just don't have it in my heart to get upset with this kid/man. Living in Ukraine must be really fucking terrible if you are willing to commit to four years of fraudulence just to call East Bumblefuck, Pennsylvania your home. If you have a problem with Asher then it's probably because he makes you feel insecure about your own children, because this dude accomplished more in an American high school than any American high schooler ever has. He's basically a pioneer. He proved that age is indeed just a number, and he became the first 23 year old high school student to maintain a 4.0 GPA in the process. Not only should we celebrate this dude, but we should take him on a tour of the cities in the Continental United States that DON'T still embrace the confederacy.