My student, Earl?

At my school, most of our classes for students with a learning or behavior disability are team taught.  This year I am the special education teacher half for one English 9, one English 10, one government per semester, and one US History.  The other day in my English 9 class, the other teacher wrote a mentor text essay to share with the class to show them what we want their finished product to look like.  He gave the essay a fictitious author, Earl Sweatshirt.  When students asked about Earl, my team teacher stated that he was a rapper and was one of my former students.  Turns out he is a rapper, but not one of my former students.  The kids have now spent two days trying to figure out how he was my student when he has lived in LA his whole life.  I don't know if I should laugh or cry....