School worker charged with sending explicit photo to student
PAWTUCKET – A former behavioral specialist at Joseph Jenks Junior High School has been charged with electronically disseminating indecent material to a minor after he allegedly sent sexually-explicit text messages and images to a 13-yearold former student.
On Dec. 19, Woonsocket Police were informed by Pawtucket Police that a student at Joseph Jenks Junior High School had told an officer that a behavioral specialist at the school – identified as Michael Hart, 35, of Providence – may be having a sexual relationship with a 13-year-old former student who had since moved to Woonsocket.
The girl’s mother told police that her daughter recently reset her cellphone and she was suspicious that her daughter may have been hiding something from her. The teen told police that Hart had given her his cellphone number while she was attending Jenks Junior High and that after moving to Woonsocket, she began having an online relationship with him.
The girl told police that their conversations became sexually graphic and that Hart allegedly sent her nude images of his body and that she sent nude images to him, police said. She said once Hart realized that police were beginning to investigate, he allegedly told her to break her cellphone or perform a
factory reset on it. Since the phone was reset, there was no evidence that could be recovered from it, police said.
In follow-up conversations with Woonsocket Police, the girl said that after she moved to Woonsocket, their conversations became “flirty” and that Hart asked her if she was “into older guys,” later saying, “I like you stupid.” She
also said that Hart told her when she turned 18 that they would do “adult things.”
The girl said she received a text last December from a classmate at Jenks Junior High who told her that the entire class knew about her and Hart. When she called Hart, he allegedly told her to break her phone and he would buy her a new one. He also said that people at the school were walking into the guidance office and that he was going to be arrested.
A search of the girl’s phone records showed that Hart sent the 13-year-old 92 text messages and 47 phone calls between Sept. 21 and Dec. 12. She called him 17 times and sent five multimedia text messages during that same time period, police said.
A statement from the Pawtucket School Department on Friday read: “On Dec. 14, 2018, at 2:15 p.m., a Pawtucket student reported that a former Pawtucket student, then enrolled in Woonsocket,
and the employee of a vendor to the Pawtucket School Department had exchanged inappropriate pictures and videos. The Pawtucket School Department always takes serious any matter regarding the basic needs of our children. There are many protocols during the hiring process that vendors are required to adhere to, one of which is a BCI check. The employee for the vendor did pass a BCI check on Sept. 5, 2018.”
“At 2:25 p.m. on Dec. 14,
2018, the Pawtucket School Department immediately took action and notified DCYF. At the same time, the Pawtucket School Department notified the Pawtucket Police Department’s School Resource Officer. The Pawtucket Police Department, in turn, notified the Woonsocket Police Department. The Pawtucket School Department also immediately notified the vendor that the person was no longer allowed in any Pawtucket schools,” the statement
read.
Hart turned himself in to Woonsocket Police on Feb. 7 and was charged with felony electronically disseminating indecent material to a minor, according to police records. He was arraigned in Sixth District Court that day and is due back in court on May 16 for a pre-arraignment conference, according to the judiciary website.