Sadie Silver.
Sadie Silver, the respected and well-loved principal of Brooklyn Public School 28, was arrested Friday for smuggling heroin and prescription drugs into Coxsackie Correctional Facility.
Silver, 40, is charged with promoting prison contraband and criminal possession of a controlled substance, both felonies. Her boyfriend and accomplice, 34-year-old Michael Acosta, received the same charges.
The pair was further charged with endangering the welfare of a child. Silver brought her 10-year-old daughter along for the trip.
State Police Major Patrick Reagan said that Silver and Acosta were at the prison for an already-arranged meeting with Silver’s son Alex Mercado, who is in jail on weapons charges.
Reagan’s statement went on:
Silver and Acosta were found to possess a quantity of heroin and suboxone, which they were attempting to deliver to the inmate. Silver and Acosta brought a 10-year-old child with them while they attempted to deliver the narcotics.
Screeners caught Acosta with two drug-filled balloons. Silver did not have drugs on her person, but authorities believe she was a part of the plan to sneak them in.
Michael Acosta, Silver’s boyfriend, was also charged.
Silver grew up in the same area where she would go on to become a principal. In a 2012 New York Daily News profile, che credited “the teachers that believed in me” for helping her rise above her circumstances.
She holds a Master’s degree in Special Education and Teaching from Long Island University, and has been an employee of the New York City Department of Education since 1996.
Since becoming principal in 2006, Silver has received widespread praise for raising test scores at PS 28.
Education Department spokeswoman Maggie Feinberg said that Silver had been “[reassigned] away from her school pending the outcome of her case.”
Silver will continue to draw her salary, which, last year, was $129,920.
