The Providence Public School District in Rhode Island is investigating an email circulated among staff at Mount Pleasant High School requesting financial aid for a student to pay a “coyote” who allegedly brought him to the United States.
The email would have been sent by Assistant Principal Stefani Harvey last Thursday.
The employee was temporarily separated from the position in which the investigation culminates. This Monday, Harvey was placed on paid leave.
“We have a student who came to the United States with a ‘coyote’ (…) and this group gives him a time limit to make a payment of $5,000 dollars,” read the email sent at 8:21 pm from the account of the deputy director
The email, which has the phrase “student needs help” as a subject, details that the student must pay the coyote $2,000 as soon as possible, since he has until February 1 to settle the debt.
Maribeth Calabro, president of the Providencia Teachers Union, confirmed the authenticity of the email and expressed concern for the student’s safety. “We know that District leadership launched an immediate investigation. Our concern is for the safety and well-being of the student,” the spokeswoman told NBC 10 News.
For her part, the school principal, surnamed Delaney, sent an email to all staff on Friday in which she classified the communication as inappropriate.
“I was informed that there was an email seeking financial support for one of our students. I appreciated the faculty and staff contributing to a cause that supports a student, but the nature of the request is not appropriate,” Delaney wrote.
The school manager added: “All funds contributed will be returned and we will look for more appropriate methods to support students.”
The discussion lent itself to anti-immigrant users on social networks taking screenshots of the email and sharing racist messages against the undocumented.
In Providence there are just over 109,000 inhabitants, largely immigrants. Specifically, 70% of the 1,160 high school students are Latino or Hispanic, according to statistics from the school itself.