‘Dangerous’: Parent Advocate Raises Concerns Over Assistant Principal Who Solicited Cash For Student’s ‘Coyote’ Fees

‘Dangerous’: Parent Advocate Raises Concerns Over Assistant Principal Who Solicited Cash For Student’s ‘Coyote’ Fees

Jennie Taer on January 30, 2023

• A Rhode Island activist is sharing her concerns over an incident in which a local school official solicited donations for an illegal immigrant student’s “coyote,” a word used to describe a smuggler.
• The Daily Caller News Foundation obtained emails Friday showing an assistant principal at Providence’s Mount Pleasant High School made the request, however, the school denies the veracity of the message.
• “It certainly makes me and I think all parents feel that public school is not safe when you have teachers and administrators participating in fundraising for a Mexican cartel. I’m almost speechless that this happened. This email was sent to the entire faculty and staff at the school. A few teachers have leaked it. But the fact that most of these teachers are too scared to talk makes me really scared that there’s something else going on,” Education Freedom Center fellow and Rhode Island mother Nicole Solas told the DCNF.

A Rhode Island activist is concerned over the effects of the southern border crisis in the U.S. education system after a local school official recently solicited donations to pay the “coyote” fees of an illegal immigrant student, she told the Daily Caller News Foundation Monday.

Providence’s Mount Pleasant High School Assistant Principal Stefani Harvey sent an email Thursday evening asking staff for donations for “a student who came to America with ‘Coyote,’ which is a group that helps people,” according to the message obtained by the DCNF. Harvey described the coyote, which is another word for a smuggler, as a group that “gives you a time frame to make a payment of $5000 dollars to those who bring them into the states.”

Education Freedom Center fellow and Rhode Island mother Nicole Solas believes that the surge in illegal migration at the U.S.-Mexico border, where U.S. Customs and Border Protection recorded more than 2.3 million migrant encounters in fiscal year 2022 alone, threatens students’ safety in schools.

“It certainly makes me and I think all parents feel that public school is not safe when you have teachers and administrators participating in fundraising for a Mexican cartel. I’m almost speechless that this happened. This email was sent to the entire faculty and staff at the school. A few teachers have leaked it. But the fact that most of these teachers are too scared to talk makes me really scared that there’s something else going on,” Solas said.

“That seems like a no brainer to want to act as a mandated reporter in order to first of all help this student who apparently is under the ransom of a coyote and secondly, to help the entire school community stay safe. If this really is a student that is under the ransom of a coyote. Then there are all collateral consequences to that. If a student is desperate to save the life of his family that may be excited that is in danger by a coyote in Mexico. They can engage in illegal activity in order to get money like drug dealing, crack trafficking, and that is dangerous to the entire community,” Solas added.

The school previously denied the veracity of the email.

“That is a fake email. We are on top of that. We are trying to figure out who generated that and why. We do not have a student that is being human trafficked,” the school official, who did not identify themselves to the DCNF, said Friday.

The school’s principal, Tiffany Delaney, sent a subsequent email Friday to staff to clarify that the message was inappropriate.

“I appreciate the faculty and staff contributing to a cause that supports a student, but the nature of the request is not appropriate. All funds contributed will be returned and we will seek more appropriate methods to support our students,” Delaney said in the email.

Solas believes that having a student tied to a smuggler puts other children in danger and that parents need to take a look at how illegal immigration is affecting local safety issues.

“Of course, the law since 1982 is that we must educate all students, and, of course, we want all students to get an education. But that puts us in a precarious position if now we have the border crisis in our school, and we’re not allowed to talk about it for fear of being ostracized,” Solas said.

“So, my position is that this is pretty clear evidence that even though the border crisis is thousands of miles away, it is actually now in Providence schools and then public schools in Rhode Island and it has to be talked about, because it’s putting everyone in a dangerous situation when you have a school assistant principal, and a school guidance counselor, engaging in what appears to be a conspiracy to help him and smugglers,” she added.