Registered Sex Offender Poses As Teen Girl Again To Infiltrate High School—Staff Catch Him First

The suspect, identified as Makayla Craig, allegedly submitted an enrollment application to Maple Grove High School, just outside Minneapolis, claiming to be a 17-year-old girl named Molly from Oregon, raising immediate red flags among school staff who alerted law enforcement, according to The New York Post. Charging documents obtained by KARE indicate that administrators quickly became suspicious of inconsistencies in Craig’s story, underscoring the importance of vigilance in protecting students from adults exploiting lax identity safeguards.

When officers detained Craig, he allegedly told police that he had never attended school and wanted to “get the full experience,” according to police. He also reportedly admitted he feared being recognized as “Makayla Craig” — a registered sex offender from Oregon — which he in fact was.

Authorities stressed that Craig never actually made it into classrooms or online instruction under the false identity. Craig “never completed enrollment with Maple Grove Senior High School, and he was never present on campus as a student or in any online classes,” the Maple Grove Police Department said in a press release.

Prosecutors have charged Craig with multiple counts of felony forgery, a serious offense that reflects the gravity of attempting to infiltrate a school environment under false pretenses. He is being held on $50,000 bond, with a court appearance scheduled for Friday, according to jail records.

Craig’s latest arrest follows a similar scheme in Oregon, where he was sentenced in April 2025 to 40 days in jail for posing as a 15-year-old homeless girl named Madison while trying to enroll in an Albany high school with forged documents, according to KGW, which referred to Craig by female pronouns in its reporting. He was 27 at the time, already an adult male exploiting progressive identity norms that too often override basic common sense and safety protocols.

Craig became a registered sex offender after a May 2023 conviction for third-degree sexual abuse involving a minor, for which he received three years’ probation and was prohibited from contacting children during that period, the outlet reported. He was also acquitted of DUI in a 2023 jury trial tied to a 2020 arrest, according to KGW, raising further questions about how many chances repeat offenders should receive before courts and communities draw a hard line.

The Maple Grove case highlights the growing challenge schools face as they balance compassion for the homeless and vulnerable with the duty to shield minors from predators willing to exploit identity claims and bureaucratic gaps. The Post has reached out to the Maple Grove Police Department and Hennepin County District Attorney’s Office for additional information, as parents and taxpayers alike demand stronger safeguards to ensure that adults with known sex-crime histories cannot slip into classrooms under fabricated identities.