More shocking accusations continue to emerge from Diddy's alleged rape and sex trafficking victims, including from a child as young as 9 years old. We can't help but remember that time when Diddy co-founded a charter school with a social justice mission in New York in conjunction with a slick charter school advocate from Connecticut.
Dr. Steve Perry, founder of Capital Preparatory Schools, launched his first charter school in 2005 in Hartford, Connecticut. The Capital Prep Magnet School within the Hartford Public School district is a college preparatory school for grades 6-12 with a mission to provide a "diverse community of student learners with the academic, character, and college and career readiness skills needed to become responsible and engaged citizens for social justice."
In 2015, Perry expanded by adding Capital Preparatory Harbor Charter School in Bridgeport, Connecticut, starting with grades 7-12, and then expanding in 2017 by adding an elementary school.
"Simultaneously, need and demand became evident in Harlem and the Bronx," says the history of Capital Prep on its website.
The part that is now missing from the description is that the co-founder of the Harlem location is the notorious P. Diddy, then known as Puff Daddy.
“I want to impact the lives of young people in my community, and build future leaders,” Combs said in a statement at the time.
According to the New York Times, Diddy started recruiting Dr. Perry in 2011 to bring Capital Prep to Harlem, and even provided office space and quietly rallied support in the community.
The charter school was approved by the New York Board of Regents in 2014.
“It’s important to note it was he [Diddy] who inspired our team to come in and expand into New York,” Dr. Perry told the New York Times. “It starts there, and the rest of the role will develop over time.”
The rest of the role? So much for that now!
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By the way, Diddy met Dr. Perry at an engagement dinner in August 2009 for former head of Def Jam Records, Kevin Liles.
Diddy described his involvement in the creation of Capital Prep Harlem as a “dream come true.”
The school launched in 2016, and Diddy quickly pushed to expand to a second location in The Bronx; that location opened its doors in 2020 to 6th and 7th graders.
Diddy got his celebrity friends to donate to the school, too, like Ellen Degeneres did in 2018.
Diddy subsequently donated $1 million to help launch the Bronx school so it could "groom future leaders" and said he dreamed about opening more schools with Dr. Perry "around the globe."
He even showed up for a surprise visit to the Bronx school on October 18, 2022, much to the delight of students eager to shake the rap mogul's hand.
Of course knowing the charges and long list of allegations against Diddy now makes viewing his interactions with underage school students feel somewhat uncomfortable.
His surprise visit to students in The Bronx wasn't the only time the accused sex trafficker and rapist appeared with Capital Prep students.
Earlier that year, on May 15, 2022, Diddy was highlighted in the local Connecticut press for taking a group of students from Capital Prep schools in Harlem, the Bronx and Bridgeport with him to the 2022 Billboard Music Awards at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Wonder if any of those students travelled with their parents, or if Diddy had temporary legal guardianship like he once had over underage musicians like Usher and Justin Bieber?
By the way, taking some children from Bridgeport to Las Vegas isn't the only thing Diddy has done for students in the state of Connecticut.
Turns out Diddy was honored by the Carver Foundation with the 2018 Child of America Award at the Foundation’s 80th anniversary gala.
Novelette Peterkin, Carver’s executive director, said Diddy "does a lot of philanthropic investment in programs like Carver" which serves middle and high school youth in Norwalk, Connecticut.
“We try to honor exceptional role models for Carver youth and it’s called Child for America for a reason, because we look to honor someone who’s national,” Peterkin said. “He inspired my generation and he continues to inspire the younger generation now.”
No word on whether the Carver foundation has any plans to revoke Diddy's award, which was presented by Greenwich, CT, resident Ray Dalio, the billionaire founder of secretive investment firm Bridgewater Associates.
Capital Prep eventually ended its relationship with Diddy on November 28, 2023, amid a flurry of sexual assault allegations emerging about Diddy since Cassie Ventura's lawsuit dropped on November 16, 2023.
"Following a comprehensive evaluation, a decision has been made to end the partnership between Capital Preparatory Schools and Sean Combs. While this decision was not made lightly, we firmly believe it is in the best interest of our organization's health and future," wrote Dr. Perry in a statement that has since been deleted.
Capital Prep has been under fire from parents whose children allegedly experienced "violence and dysfunction" in the school. The parents had hoped that Diddy would have helped more, considering his fame (and wallet), but perhaps in retrospect, they might have dodged a bullet.
Less than a year after Capital Prep parted ways with Diddy, he was charged in Manhattan Federal Court with sex trafficking and other federal offenses on September 17, 2024.
Dr. Perry has positioned himself as "America's Most Trusted Educator" -- someone who has experienced the struggles of poor quality education yet went on to obtain an Ivy League education from the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard.
He's appeared as an education expert on television networks like CNN and BET, and has written 6 books.
Dr. Perry's books have been promoted by Diddy at private events in New York City, like one that took place on September 13, 2011.
Dr. Perry has been to multiple galas for Steve Harvey's foundation going back to at least 2012, and even appeared on Harvey's mentoring show in 2020...Harvey is one of those guys who has deleted his tweets in the wake of Diddy's arrest.
The COO of Revolt Media, which was co-founded by Diddy, attended Dr. Perry's Christmas House Party on December 19, 2015, in West Haven, Connecticut.
Dr. Perry was even described as "Oprah Winfrey's go-to education adviser" in 2019, and included Dr. Iyanla Vanzant, an author and spiritual life coach who has worked frequently with Oprah Winfrey, on the board of Capital Prep.
Of course, connections like that could all just be coincidences.
