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Indiana Superintendent Resigns After Using Her Insurance to Help Sick Student

Casey Smitherman, the superintendent of Elwood Community Schools, stepped down Friday, almost a month after she took a 15-year-old student to an emergency clinic after he showed symptoms of strep throat.

By Kate Feldman

The Indiana school district superintendent who used her son's insurance to help a sick student resigned late last week.

Casey Smitherman, the superintendent of Elwood Community Schools, stepped down Friday, almost a month after she took a 15-year-old student to an emergency clinic after he showed symptoms of strep throat.

After being turned away from the first clinic because she was not the boy's guardian, Smitherman said she went to another facility and pretended the student was her son.

"I knew he did not have insurance, and I wanted to do all I could to help get him well," she previously said in a statement. "I know this action was wrong. In the moment, my only concern was for this child's health."

Using her son's name again, Smitherman filled a prescription for Amoxicillin at a local CVS and gave the medication to the teenager. The total bill for the medical care came to $233.

A few weeks later, in mid-January, Smitherman turned herself in after police followed up with the boy's guardian. At the time, she said she had previously bought clothes for the student and helped clean his house.

She was charged with insurance fraud, identity deception, official misconduct and insurance application fraud.

"I am very embarrassed for that, and I apologize to the board, the community and the teachers and students of Elwood Community Schools. I sincerely hope this single lapse in judgement does not tarnish all of the good work I've done for students over the span of my career," Smitherman said in a statement to the Indianapolis Star Friday, calling it a "lapse in judgement."

"I am confident the board will take the necessary steps to ensure the school system works through this period of change in the best possible way."

(c)2019 New York Daily News

 

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