Woman Charged After Posing as Mother to Take Girl From School

Jamya Jones-Houston is accused of turning a routine school dismissal into a child-safety scare by posing as the girl’s mother and signing an 8-year-old out of Barrett Elementary School in the Steel Valley School District. Police say the child was removed on March 20 after a caller claimed to be the mother, a security guard checked Jones-Houston’s identification, and the girl was released anyway.

The child’s mother called officers shortly before noon after learning her ex-girlfriend had taken the girl without permission. Security footage reportedly showed a van pulling up around 10:30 a.m., a woman entering the school, and that same woman leaving with the child minutes later. Police later said the girl’s mother had an active protection-from-abuse order against Jones-Houston, although authorities also said an earlier PFA had expired and a three-year PFA had never been served.

Investigators tracked Jones-Houston to Pittsburgh’s East Liberty neighborhood. Police said she told them she had the child and was waiting on Hays Street, but when officers reached the address she gave, they found a vacant home instead. Officers later saw Jones-Houston and the girl in the neighborhood, and the child was returned to her mother by school staff, ending the incident before it became a prolonged abduction.

Jones-Houston was charged with kidnapping of a minor and interference with the custody of children, two offenses that fit the seriousness of what police say happened outside the school door. Under Pennsylvania law, interference with custody covers knowingly or recklessly taking or enticing a child under 18 from a lawful custodian without privilege, while the kidnapping-of-a-minor statute applies when someone unlawfully removes or confines a person under 18 under specified conditions.

Steel Valley School District said the student was improperly removed from Barrett Elementary on Friday, March 20, and later found unharmed and reunited safely with her mother. The district said it conducted its own investigation and a comprehensive review of security protocols and student-release procedures after the incident, a response that points directly to the vulnerability parents recognize instantly: one convincing name, one checked ID, and a child can be out the door. Barrett serves kindergarten through fourth grade and also houses the district’s Pre-K program, making pickup safeguards especially critical.

The district’s superintendent, Bryan M. Macuga, had been named to the post on March 1, 2024 after serving as interim superintendent and working in Steel Valley since 2005. Jones-Houston was also arrested on an active warrant from the Allegheny County Sheriff’s Office, adding another layer to a case that began with a school checkout and quickly became a custody and kidnapping investigation.