Back at another Philly school, the principal accused of threatening a student with deportation denies the allegations. Here’s what to know.

Confronted with evidence that one of its principals threatened an elementary school student with deportation, the Philadelphia School District signed off on a settlement over the case this month, agreeing to pay the child’s mother an undisclosed amount and boost training.

But Charlotte Buonassisi, the accused principal, said there’s one problem: She never threatened to go to immigration officials, and an investigation determined that the allegations were unfounded, she said.

Nearly two years after the episode at Taggart Elementary, Buonassisi is now back working in the district, as substitute principal at Powel Elementary, where some parents have raised concerns that she is allowed to continue working in Philadelphia.

Here’s what we know and what we don’t know.

In early March 2022, Leslie Hernández reported that her son, a Taggart eighth grader whose name is being withheld because of safety concerns, came to Buonassisi to get help because he was being bullied, and the principal said she would call ICE and have his family deported if the boy did not behave.

Such a statement would have been a violation of both the district’s own sanctuary schools policy, which promises to protect immigrant students and families from federal immigration authorities, and federal education privacy laws.

Describing the episode during which the principal called her son and the other boy to the office, Hernández’s son told her Buonassisi asked whether the two boys were “legal or illegal.”

Then, if “they continued with their bad attitude, she would call the authorities and ICE so that they would deport not only them but their entire families,” Hernández, through an interpreter, said her son recalled.

Hernández reported the episode but got little resolution until the Latino immigrant rights group Juntos got involved. Eventually, the organization and other nonprofit legal partners sent the district a demand letter, and the parties entered into negotiations over a settlement, finalized Dec. 4.

But Buonassisi said she isn’t sure why the district settled, because “I never, ever, ever said I was going to call ICE and have your family deported. I will take a lie detector test and say that.”

Buonassisi, who had retired as principal of Ludlow Elementary in North Philadelphia in 2011, and had also worked at Penn Treaty, said since The Inquirer ran an article about the settlement, she has been fielding incredulous calls from former teachers who worked for her.

“They said, ‘You were all for diversity and equity even before that was fashionable,’” Buonassisi said. “I was always all about inclusion and learning about other cultures.”

Buonassisi had a grandmother who came to the country without documentation, she said. She herself is a Spanish speaker, of Mexican heritage. (Hernández and her son came to Philadelphia from El Salvador in late 2021.)

Buonassisi agrees that she spoke with Hernández’s son and the boy he said was bullying him on Feb. 28, 2022. However, she said she was speaking to the second boy when she said that she “didn’t want to have to send him back” to the school he attended before transferring to Taggart, but never mentioned ICE. The other boy told Buonassisi he had immigration documents, she said, perhaps misunderstanding what Buonassisi said when she was talking about sending him back to the other school.

Two other adults were present during the interaction — a Taggart counselor, who did not speak Spanish, and the school secretary, who did speak Spanish — but “some things got lost in translation,” said Buonassisi. (She said she was switching back and forth between speaking in English and Spanish.)

Her aim, Buonassisi said, was to mediate peace between the students. The district has moved away from suspensions and toward restorative justice; she tried to get the students to see common ground.

“We talked everything out,” said Buonassisi. “We shook hands, we had a group hug, and that was it.”

On March 23, 2022, the assistant superintendent who oversees Taggart visited Buonassisi at school, she said.

“She said, ‘You have to leave. I’m so sorry. They said you were going to deport them,’” said Buonassisi. She said the assistant superintendent told her she knew Buonassisi had not said that.

Buonassisi had a virtual hearing during which a member of the Commonwealth Association of School Administratiors union, which represents principals, was present, but she never received anything in writing. She was barred from working as a substitute principal while the investigation was active, a period that lasted of an entire year, Buonassisi said.

Eventually, in May, Buonassisi got a phone call: She had been reinstated. The allegations, the official told her, were unfounded, and she was cleared to work in the district again. She never received paperwork, but was called for substitute principal jobs again, both per diem and the longer-term Powel job.

In the meantime, district lawyers continued to negotiate a settlement with the nonprofit organizations representing Hernández. The financial terms of the settlement have not been made public.

It’s unclear. District spokesperson Monique Braxton said she cannot comment on personnel matters.

Since November, Buonassisi has been a “visiting principal” — essentially the substitute principal — at Powel Elementary.

After The Inquirer reported news of the settlement, word began to spread among Powel parents, and many were upset.

» READ MORE: After being bullied, a Philly student was threatened with deportation by his principal. Here’s what happened next.

In a letter sent to parents Tuesday night, district officials wrote that they “may have seen media reports surrounding Charlotte Buonassissi and the district. She is currently a substitute principal at Powel Elementary School. We understand that you may have questions and concerns.”

Victoria Pressley, the interim assistant superintendent, went on to say that officials “welcome and protect immigrant students and their families. All staff are required to undergo training consistent with our welcoming schools policy to support our immigrant students. Anyone may submit a report alleging bullying, harassment or discrimination, and this includes students, parents/guardians and employees. We take these allegations very seriously, and all reported concerns will be investigated.”

Powel parent Jarrod Green said his worries about Buonassisi being at the school and the district’s response to intimidation have not been allayed.

“Instead of a policy memo on bullying, I’d rather hear something from the school staff with some human element about addressing bullying and about proactive inclusion of immigrant families and English language learners,” Green said.

Hernández said she was concerned that Buonassisi is working at another Philadelphia school, and generally disputed Buonassisi’s account.

“What I feel is worried,” Hernández said in a statement. “She has access to the students’ information.”

Hernández said the district is protecting Buonassisi, not students, and she thinks Powel parents “are going to organize themselves because they are not going to want to have a principal like that with their children.”

Erika Guadalupe Núñez, executive director of the Latino immigrant rights group Juntos, stressed that at no point in the process did the district contest what Buonassisi said, and that Hernández’s son’s story never wavered.

“I don’t think any newcomer child would make up something like that,” Núñez said. “To this day, he does not feel safe in any Philly public school. We stand by [the boy] and his mom.”

Núñez said she was “incredibly disappointed” that Buonassisi can continue to work in Philadelphia schools.

“This could happen again,” she said.