Assistant principal put on paid leave over email soliciting money for human smuggler

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WJAR) — The Providence Public School District confirmed Monday that an assistant principal was placed on paid leave over an email she sent to teachers.

The administrator asked her colleagues to help pay a $2,000 debt owed by a student who’d been smuggled into the country.

Very few officials were talking about the situation Monday, but the president of the Providence Teachers Union — often critical of school administration — said she has a lot of concerns.

"First and foremost, there needs to be a full conversation about how this took place," PTU President Maribeth Calabro said. "How did this transpire? How did the student come to you? Did the student come to you? Did you elicit this? How did this all come about?"

Calabro said many questions have been raised since Mount Pleasant High School Assistant Principal Stefani Harvey sent the email to staff members Thursday.

The email said: "We have a student who came to America with 'Coyote,' which is a group that helps people. This group gives you a time frame to make a payment of $5000 dollars to those, who bring them to the states."

The email said the student needed to raise another $2,000 to meet the $5,000 goal by Feb. 1, 2023.

The Department of Justice defines coyotes as "human smugglers."

NBC 10 News asked Calabro if it is known that coyotes are used to bring students over the border.

"Not in my 30 years. I haven’t heard. No student has disclosed to me or friends of mine that coyotes are used, but if you watch enough TV you can pretty much figure out that coyotes are a real thing," Calabro said.

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The school district confirmed the email was legitimate.

NBC 10 News stopped by the Rhode Island Department of Education, which took over Providence schools in 2019, to press for answers.

"I have confirmed that the email in question is authentic and it was sent out. We understand that it was also retracted by the principal. At this point, there is an ongoing investigation, so we won’t be commenting further," Victore Morente, RIDE spokesman, said.

Calabro says she’s worried about the student mentioned in the email.

"It’s concerning to think this is actually happening. That they, he or she, were brought here under those conditions," Calabro said. "It’s scary.”