Assistant principal asks teachers to help pay student's 'coyote,' aka human smuggler

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (TND) — An assistant principal in Rhode Island who fired off a controversial email to teachers has been placed on paid administrative leave while some details are investigated.

She may have also learned what a coyote really is.

Dr. Stefani Harvey of Mount Pleasant High School in Providence sent the message Thursday night, asking colleagues to help pay for "a student who came to America with 'Coyote', [sic] which is a group that helps people."

The federal government says coyotes don't help people. Instead, the Justice Department refers to them as human smugglers who bring people into the country illegally.

In this student's case, he reportedly needed $2,000 more, to pay a total of $5,000 by Wednesday, Feb. 1.

Nothing else has been reported, including how a "coyote" took someone who did not pay in advance and released the student on credit.

The head of the Providence Teachers Union says the organization doesn’t know anything about the student, but somebody needs to find out.

Soliciting money for help is not necessarily a foreign thing in this context. It, you know, raises eyebrows," PTU President Maribeth Calabro said.

Calabro said the email is inappropriate, that there’s a protocol when it comes to soliciting money for students, and she’s worried about the student.

Dr. Harvey is relatively new, so I don’t know what her understanding is," Calabro explained. "I would hope that being hired to a position as a leadership position, you would understand that there are things that you can do and there are things you cannot do.