‘He had everyone fooled:’ How a 24-year-old Venezuelan man lived a lie as a high school student for over a year

Anthony Labrador-Sierra was living the typical life of an American high schooler.

He played on the junior varsity soccer and swim teams, his classmates called him by the nickname “Big Tone,” and he dated teenage girls, according to people who knew him.

As far as his classmates, teachers and parents at Perrysburg High School, Ohio, were concerned, Labrador-Sierra was a 16-year-old migrant from Venezuela. He didn’t elaborate much about his past to his classmates — for reasons that would become clear a year and a half later.

Labrador-Sierra was, in fact, a 24-year-old father who remarkably managed to pose as a high school student for more than 16 months after enrolling with a fraudulent birth certificate, local and federal authorities say.

“He had everyone fooled,” one mom whose kids attended Perrysburg High School with Labrador-Sierra told The Independent. “He had everyone thinking that he was the victim. He wiggled his way into everyone's lives.”

Labrador-Sierra’s double life unravelled last month after the mother of his child came forward and exposed him. He now faces federal charges of possession of a firearm by an alien unlawfully in the U.S., making false statements during the purchase of a firearm and using false documents to represent himself as a U.S. citizen.

As he awaits his fate in a cell at the Corrections Center of Northwest Ohio, the Perrysburg community has been left reeling and parents want answers.

The Perrysburg High School mom, who requested anonymity to protect her children’s identities, said she was “stunned and worried” when she first heard the bombshell news.

But her children, who had become friends with Labrador-Sierra, were not so surprised. “My kids were honestly not 100 percent shocked,” the mom said. “They felt he was different and everyone talked about him. He never told anyone his true story, to our knowledge.”

Outraged parents shared their concerns on social media. “I have 2 daughters in that school….I’m looking for answers on how exactly this happened,” one father said. “All the kids that I have talked to said they knew something was up with him.”

“My daughter is a junior at the high school and I’m beyond furious!” another mom wrote. “People need to be held accountable! Students knew this guy looked older than a senior.”

Pictures seen by The Independent show how ingrained Labrador-Sierra had become within the Perrysburg community. One screenshot showed him messing around in a TikTok video in class beside two teenage students. In another, he is surrounded by more teens from a youth church group.

Professional photographs of the tattooed-24-year-old playing soccer for the school against 15 and 16-year-olds are still online.

Anna Krause’s teenage son faced off against Labrador-Sierra in a soccer game against Northview High School last year. Pictures show the 5 ft 11 man being tackled by Krause’s son, who was 15 at the time of the game, she confirmed to The Independent.

“It definitely is a wild ‘movie-like’ story,” Krause said.

As the news went national, some speculated that Labrador-Sierra may have enrolled in the school to seek an education.

“If he truly came here for an education, why not do it the correct way?” the mom whose children went to school with Labrador-Sierra asked.

Maria Ermie, who is part of the local conservative education group Perrysburg Stands Up, described the city as a “welcoming” and “giving” place.

“We're an affluent community that gives,” Ermie told The Independent. “You don't have to pretend if what you're after is coming from good intentions. If you follow our laws, we have organizations that will help you. So why was he seeking, as a 24-year-old, to be in high school with teenagers?”

Ermie spoke of several alarming incidents that have plagued Perrysburg Schools in recent years, including allegations of inappropriate teacher behavior with students. One teacher at the high school retired this year after allegations that he inappropriately touched multiple students. Another teacher at the middle school was recently put on leave for turning up at a student’s home to get a missing homework assignment.

“It's a pattern,” Ermie said of the latest incident with Labrador-Sierra, and accused Perrysburg Schools superintendent Thomas Hosler of “sweeping it under the rug.”

Hosler told The Independent that “in each of these cases, Perrysburg Schools acted swiftly and in accordance with the law.”

Parents who spoke with The Independent allege that Labrador-Sierra dated several teenage girls, who were 16 and above, during his time at the school, while not disclosing his real age, they claim. There is no mention of the alleged relations with minors in the Perrysburg police report or the federal criminal complaint, which tracks with the age of consent in Ohio being 16.

“Parents are livid because they thought that their daughter was dating a 16 or 17-year-old and he ends up being 24,” Ermie said. “There are learning opportunities, education opportunities as an adult. So again, it leads you to believe that there were nefarious reasons for him wanting to be in a school district with minors, not only misleading the young girls that he's dating, but also their parents.”

“It’s the school’s job to keep our kids safe. They failed,” another parent said via the Perrysburg Stands Up group, which is calling for a change in leadership at the school.

In response to claims about Labrador-Sierra dating teenage students, Hosler said Perrysburg Schools “is aware of community concerns regarding possible relationships between Mr. Labrador-Sierra and students.”

“What we can confirm is that we have shared all relevant information with law enforcement, and the district continues to cooperate fully in their investigation,” Hosler said. “If any students were misled or harmed by this individual, they are among the many victims of his calculated deception, and we share the anger and heartbreak felt by their families.”

The superintendent added that he takes “full responsibility for leading through this moment—and for what happens next.”

The Toledo Office of the Federal Public Defender, who is representing Labrador-Sierra, declined to comment when approached by The Independent.

There is a long list of people Labrador-Sierra is accused of deceiving, most notably the kind-hearted couple who took him in and became his legal guardians. The couple, in their sixties, had taken in other migrants in the past and also adopted children.

“They are devastated from what I hear,” Ermie, who knows the family, said. “They are wonderful, very good people who have opened their home in the past and now they've been taken advantage of.”

The couple believed Labrador-Sierra was a homeless, teen immigrant and became his permanent guardians. They helped get him a Social Security number and secure an Ohio driver’s license, according to a Perrysburg police department incident report.

The carefully constructed American teen life came crashing down on May 14, when the couple was contacted by a woman claiming to be the mother of Labrador-Sierra’s 2-year-old child. She revealed that he had been lying to them the entire time.

The couple searched his bedroom for evidence that would back up her claims.

Underneath his mattress was a handgun, ammunition, cash, and a Michigan driver’s license that was later identified as being fraudulent, a federal criminal complaint states.

His guardians gave the evidence to the police, who called in the Border Patrol and Customs team for assistance.

On May 19, Labrador-Sierra was pulled over on a traffic stop and taken into custody.

Perrysburg Schools issued a lengthy statement, where they said Labrador-Sierra “wove a complex tapestry of lies carefully designed to manipulate systems and deceive individuals at nearly every level.”

“Those threads entangled students, families, staff, attorneys, and agencies across our community and beyond,” the statement said.

Labrador-Sierra first arrived in the U.S. legally on a B1/B2 nonimmigrant tourist visa in 2019, entering at Miami International Airport.

His visa permitted him to stay until March 23, 2020. On his passport, Labrador-Sierra’s date of birth is listed as March 27, 2001.

After his visa expired, he applied for Temporary Protective Status and Employment Authorization Documents to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services on three separate occasions between 2021 and 2025, federal authorities said.

On the more recent applications, he stated his date of birth was December 2, 2007.

In November 2023, Labrador-Sierra approached Perrysburg High School and told them he had been trafficked from Venezuela and hoped to enroll, according to a police report. But the school denies ever being told of any trafficking claims.

“At no time during the enrollment process did Mr. Labrador Sierra report abuse or labor trafficking to Perrysburg Schools staff members,” the school said. They added that the trafficking claims “were made to his attorney during a meeting at the attorney’s office for his Temporary Protected Status application” in 2024.

Hosler told The Independent the school was reviewing its enrollment process. “Not because it failed, but because someone exploited a system built on legal compliance and good faith,” Hosler said in a statement. “We’re refining how complex cases are flagged, when legal review is initiated, and how we support staff through rare, high-risk situations. These steps won’t reverse what happened, but they’re part of our commitment to making our system even more alert and resilient.”

Labrador-Sierra is now under the supervision of the U.S. Marshals Service at the Corrections Center of Northwest Ohio.

Meanwhile, the people he is accused of deceiving are left picking up the pieces.

“The lies, the manipulation, the people affected by what he did,” the high school mom said. “It’s infuriating. He broke trust...and people’s hearts.”