By Amanda Milkovits and Linda Borg Journal Staff Writers
PROVIDENCE — The principal of DelSesto Middle School has taken out a temporary restraining order against a guidance counselor who she says has left threatening messages saying he wishes her dead.
Brian W. Cabral, 44, of Tiverton, was placed on administrative leave after being “deemed unfit for duty since 2015,” according to the complaint that Principal Arzinia Gill filed in Superior Court.
Gill wrote that the School Department’s human resources office placed Cabral on leave, which she supported. Cabral then turned his anger against her, on May 1, by leaving angry messages saying he wanted Gill dead — “run over by a bus” — according to the complaint. School officials also noticed that Cabral posted on Facebook that he’d lost everything and that the people “who messed up his life were going to pay,” according to Gill’s complaint.
The School Department notified police, who visited Cabral’s home in Tiverton and warned him not to contact any school employees, she wrote. A few days later, Gill wrote, Cabral left a harassing voice message at her husband’s workplace.
She took out the first temporary restraining order against Cabral on May 5, and extended it on May 16. “I fear for my safety, as well as the safety of my family,” Gill said in her complaint. A hearing on a preliminary injunction is scheduled for Friday in Superior Court.
It wasn’t clear what prompted Cabral’s leave or when it began. Laura Hart, School Department spokeswoman, said Tuesday that Cabral has not been suspended, but he is no longer in the school. She declined to comment on whether he was considered “unfit for duty,” as Gill alleged.
Hart declined to be more specific about Cabral’s status, citing privacy laws.
Cabral did not respond to phone messages from The Providence Journal Tuesday afternoon.
Cabral has had a private counseling practice and previously taught middle school. More than a decade ago, students at Perry Middle School held a sit-in in support of Cabral after he was removed as acting head of guidance. Cabral had lost his job after two people filed grievances alleging that he didn’t have the required experience.
But Cabral was popular with teachers, who signed a letter praising his involvement and professionalism, and students, who said Cabral was like a parent to them. He was astonished when students turned out to support him, telling a Journal reporter at the time that it was “the proudest moment of my life.”