Parents were drawn in by Capital Prep’s celebrity connections and social justice curriculum. Instead, their children faced violence and dysfunction.
Last summer, Sean “Diddy” Combs was celebrated at the Apollo Theater for his work in education. The rapper was presented with an award by students from Capital Preparatory Harlem, the charter school he co-founded in 2016, the same yearthe richest man in hip-hop.
Parents were drawn to Capital Prep for its social-justice mission and college-acceptance rates, which Combs emphasizedwhen Combs was on her show. “I liked what they stood for, collectively coming together, teaching our Black and brown kids, giving them equality in education,” says Shakemia Harris, who enrolled her then-11-year-old daughter, Madison, at Capital Prep in 2017, the year after the school opened.
Then, in 2020, the pandemic hit. “We came home in March and then everything crumbled and it just kept crumbling,” says Shirley Payne, whose son, Darnell, had joined the school as a ninth-grader the previous fall. Parents say that during this period, students stopped having regular lessons. “They would log on, and the teacher wouldn’t show up,” says Payne.
Toward the end of the pandemic, the school had relocated from East 104th Street to 129th and Madison. The building, a 135-year-old Catholic church designated as a landmark by the city, was larger and more impressive than the school’s former digs. But parents say the area outside the new location was dangerous — there were sometimes shootings nearby, and on the walk from the subway to the school, students say they would see drug use on the street.
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