. >> what makes steve perry so mad. with little responsibility, zero accountability. our parents telling us what to do... how to behave. now, all of a sudden, we're there, in that role, at that time in our lives where everyone and everything is depending on us. it's a scary feeling, but it's also a good one. especially when i'm confident someone's there for me. >>> in a perfect world -- >> no one would dare tell me -- >> you're too young to understand. >> when in fact. >> in fact i understand anger. >> i understand pain. >> i understand hope. >> i understand change. >> as it turns out, i'm not too young after all. >>> it's before dawn, and principal steve perry is already on the job. >> what's up, sleeping beauty? okay. i'll be there in 15 minutes. >> some quick good-byes to his wife and sons, and he's out the door. >> i wake up at 4:45 in the morning and i drive kids to school. >> you take kids to school? >> i do. >> you pick them up? >> every day. >> why? you're the principal. >> i'm the bus driver in the morning, though. if you walk the has, i'm picking up papers,

you'll find steve perry here. he's principal of capital preparatory magnate school in hartford, connecticut. each and every day he inthe vice principal greet each and every student as they walk through capital's doors. >> how are you today? >> reporter: for perry, being a principal is all about the details. >> who's grade is this? that's not ours. mr. carter, you got to be kidding me? that's the best you can move, son? >> reporter: from uniform inspections. >> where's your blazer, son? having it is not good enough. tut it on. >> reporter: to morning meetings. >> i know there are quite a few who haven't done curricular mapping. then keep your mouth shut. just keep it shut. i wake up at 4:45 in the morning and i drive kids to school. >> reporter: you take kids to school? >> i pick them up in my car. every day. >> reporter: why? you're the principal. >> i know. i'm bus driver in the morning though. you do what you got to do to get it done. come on, georgia. get to where you need to be. >> reporter: and getting it don

. >> one of those schools run by principal steve perry.en profiled his work and incredible graduation rate and the rate of those who go on to college. you need to hear this. she profiled him in our "black in america 2" series. >> good morning. good morning. good morning. good morning. where's your coat, man? tough guy. good morning. >> reporter: every morning at 7:30 a.m., you can find steve perry here. >> how's everything? >> reporter: he's principal of capital preparatory magnate school in hartford, connecticut. >> what's up? >> reporter: each and every day he and the vice principal greet each and every student as they walk through capital's doors. >> how are you today? >> reporter: for perry, being a principal is all about the details. >> whose grade is this? that's not ours. okay. mr. carr, you got to be kidding me. that's the fastest you can move, son? >> reporter: from uniform inspections. >> okay. having it is not enough, right? put it on. >> reporter: to morning meetings. >> i know there are quite a few who have not done curriculum

i wish his family the best in their most trying of times. >> steve perry inspired by michael jacksonrying to inspire young children as well. thank you so much for joining us from the essence festival. >> thank you so much, melissa. >> happy fourth of july. >> thank you so much. >> take care. >> in new orleans, a special program for at-risk youth, started as a summer program to keep children off the streets and now blossomed into a year-round music haven. cnns fredericka whitfield tells us how it is also changing lives. ♪ >> reporter: the powerful booming reach of one of the most popular brass bands in new orleans. just got bigger. a year ago i told you about how hard members of this nine piece ensemble worked to return home to this city and their most loyal fans after hurricane katrina scattered evan across the country. for drummer derek, their gift of music needed to reach another audience. one with an even greater hunger to fill. >> the music really saved me from a lot of stuff going on in the streets. and i figured i could do the same thing with a lot of other kids. >> he came up

we must continue with what king fought for. >> steve perry and reverend al sharpton. thank you.much more rested than when i saw you last week. >> thank you. >> congratulations. i'm glad you got some sleep finally. >>> cnn wednesday night, 7:00 eastern, the moment of truth with steve harvey and tom joiner live from times square. 8:00 p.m., the premiere of "black in america," part two. "black in america." part 1, i should say. part one followed by president obama's news conference. then "black in america" continues wednesday night right here on cnn. >>> tonight a look at the first african-american president's visit to africa. anderson cooper takes the historic journey tonight at 8:00 p.m. eastern only here on cnn. >>> live from the red carpet. radio city music hall at a star-studded event for nelson mandela. oscar-winning actor forest whitaker will join us. that help protect the health of your heart, eyes and bones. age-adjusted centrum silver. and now get centrum silver in a new smaller tablet formula. whento compliment theirflac benefits package aflac! it made a big splash with

steve perry founded the school four years ago. >> how we doing, sir?st expectations of all his students. it's the capital prep way. >> earrings out, please. we have a school that is designed to send children to college. if we don't send children to college, we're not doing our job. >> reporter: how many of your kids go to college? >> 100%. >> reporter: every child who graduates? >> every child that graduates goes on to a four-year college. >> reporter: at one point college was the last thing on gloria's mind. by age 15 she was considering dropping out. then she enrolled in capital prep. >> before capital prep, my main focus was just getting out of the house. getting my ged and getting an apartment and just going, just going. >> reporter: she wanted out, a home where her parents' addictions meant chaos. >> i have the best of both worlds. meaning i had a mom who was a drug user and a dad who was an alcoholic. >> i often say to children, you have to learn to play hurt. you want to sit, you want to cry? then when you're done crying, guess what's going to h

steve perry. he is the principal and founder of prepatory magnet school and he says 100% of his graduates on to four-year colleges. 100%. those are his numbers. one of his students is a young woman named gloria who went from thinking of dropping out to a huge success. take a look at her story. >> good morning, good morning. good morning, good morning. good morning. where's your coat, man? tough guy. good morning. >> every morning at 7:30 a.m. you can find steve perry here. how's everything? >> reporter: he's principal in connecticut. each and every day he and vice president princeal meet and greet every student as they walk through the doors. for perry, being a principal is all about the details. mr. carter, you have to be kidding me. that is the fastest you can move, son? from uniform inspections. having it is not enough, put it on. >> reporter: to morning meetings. >> i know quite a few who have not done curriculum mapping. >> reporter: he does it all. >> than keep your mouth shut. just keep it

wuk like steve perry, jeff canada, and others to break the cycle of poverty and help folks get to college. and help improve their communities long term. what we find is that, if you got to college you haven't won the war. there is a ton more work we need to do to enable the folks who come from struggle, who overcome through talent and scrappiness and effort to get to college, we need to get them to the finish line. we try to understand what were the challenges. it really is that we need to embolden young people, young african-americans, with key ingredients they need to realize their potential. we feel that is one, to address the underrepresentation of minorities in leadership positions, probably most importantly if we don't do that, that young people aren't going to realize their potential and we lose out on the opportunity for those folks who have the capital and the skills and relationships to go back in their communities and really have impact and tackle the problems. >> everyone knows by now it is much more come president tiff in just about any field that you want to pursue. is the t

steve perry, he said i'm going to meet with geoff canada. need him to explain to me how i take my school from fixing education to -- it's not enough. you have to fix the community. they are meeting to expand that. >> how do you do that? as we learned from principal perry last night, a lot of times the parents don't show up to the board meetings, to the pta meetings. >> you've got to get focused, not just from the power of me, but the power of we. we have to show people that we can't fault these crises and that we can do it as a group. it's not enough to have big, pretty flowers like the harlem zone. we've got to have a full healthy lawn. we have 1.2 million kids in the charter schools, 48 million in the schools across this country. you know, that's the challenge. geoff is one my heroes but he and i both know that the challenge is, how do we get from these flowers to a complete garden. that's going to take the power of we. >> how do you get parents to come? >> look, first of all, i was so happy to see that the parents wouldn't come because th

steve perry. president of capital prep tore m school.have a opportunity talk about the impact 37 years later in life. >> a brother's objective is to make you cry. she's got both of us working over here. it can never be underestimated how important an educator is to a child's life. everyone here in times square can point to somebody who was in a school who at one point or nothing touched their life in one way or another. reason why i wake up at 4:30 every morning to make sure that i can pick children up to get them to school two hours before school starts is because i know that one day they're going to look back and they're going to change somebody's life because somebody took the time to change their life. so mr. boston, please, from all of us who's had a mr. boston in our life, thank you. thank you so much for what you do. >> are you still teaching, mr. boston? >> yes, i am. i just want to point out that i had a mentor, too. i took karate at 17 years of age with chuck norris. he changed my life over there. it's like seven degrees. then

steve perry would be one who says exactly that.what he's going is working to make his school great to impact the lives of the many students who go there. take a look. >> good morning. good morning. good morning. where's your coat, man? tough guy. good morning. >> every morning at 7:30 a.m. you can find steve perry here. >> how is everything? >> he's principal of capital preparatory school in hartford, connecticut. each and every day he and vice principal greet each and every student as they walk through the doors. >> how are you today? >> reporter: for perry being a principal is all about the detail. >> whose is this? that's not ours. okay. mr. carter, you got to be kidding me. that's the fastest you can move, son? >> from uniform inspections -- >> where's your blazer? >> i have it. >> having it is not enough. put it on. >> reporter: to morning meetings. >> i know quite a few have not done curricular mapping. >> reporter: he does it all. >> keep your mouth shut. >> i didn't do anything. >> just keep it shut. >> i wake up at 4:45 in

we profiled, a guy who is steve perry who sends 100% of his graduates go to college. here is a community where 30% of the kids graduate. at his school he has zero percent drop out rate and he sends 100% of the kids off to college. he has tapped into some kind of success that other people need to learn from. we tap into rock, that takes kids to south a 4 a america andy making them to do service projects for others. these kids are on the end of receiving aid. they understand that their horizonses can be expanded. >> do you think these are issues that are not discussed enough in mainstream media? >> yeah, there's no question. i think most african-americans will tell you that there's sort of three or four types of stories that are covered for the african-american community and one of them is crime. we have opened a brand new area because we have a black president now. that has changed to some degree up in crime where you see african-americans, and football players and basketball players. there's 100 stories of old people so i think it's been interesting to get more of the

. >> every morning at 7:30 a.m., you can find steve perry here. >> how is everything?of capital preparatory magnet school in hartford, connecticut. every day he and the vice principal brief each and every student as they walk through capital's doors. for perry, being a principal is all about the detail. >> whose grade is this? that's not ours. mrs. carter, you got to be kidding me. that's the fastest you can move, son? >> from uniform inspections -- >> having it is not enough, right? put it on. >> -- to morning meetings -- >> i know there are quite a few who have not done critical mapping. >> -- he does it all. >> keep your mouth shut. >> i didn't do anything. >> just keep it shut. >> i wake up at 4:45 in the morning and i drive kids to school. >> you take kids to school. >> i do. >> in your car. >> i have to. >> why? you're the principal. >> i know. i'm a bus driver in the morning, though. >> getting it done is number one for perry and his staff. >> we have a school that is designed to send children to college. if we don't send children to college, we haven't done our

perry, reporting live. >>> still ahead. he disappeared without a trace. >>> tonight, we learn new details about what caused steve fossett's plane to crash. >>> and more from the families of the two teenagers who killed who the tracks here. and the latest on the investigation being taken over by baltimore county police. >>> i'm kellye lynn in glen burnie. it's something we've all experienced. >>> it's 5:30. 81 degrees. just a few clouds lingering out there. good evening. thank you for staying with eyewitness news. here are some of the stories people are talking about tonight. baltimore county police take the lead in the investigation of two teens killed on a light rail track in lutherville. eyewitness news is live outside of baltimore county police headquarters in towson. mike hellgren joins us with more on this very closely watched investigation. hi, mike. >> hi, kai. and baltimore county police say they're still working very closely with the mta. but they're trying to transfer over all of the information from this investigation. and that could take several days at this point. >>> the parents of two teenagers whose bodies were

perry. first this is "today" on nbc. @ a dull metal clanking sound. bear groans. ♪ ominous music ferocious growling. roaaaaaarrrrrrr!!!! ♪ whistling bluegrass tune >>> good morning. it's happy friday, tgif. steveo help kathie lee out. >> that's right. they're going to talk about dating online. first one more song from our summer concert star. ♪ comparisons are easily done once you've had a taste of perfection ♪ ♪ like an apple hanging from a tree i picked the ripest one i still got the seed ♪ ♪ you said move on where do i go i guess second best is all i will know ♪ ♪ 'cause when i'm with him i am thinking of you thinking of you ♪ ♪ what you would do if you were the one who was spending the night ♪ ♪ oh, i wish that i was looking into your eyes ♪ ♪ you're like an indian summer in the middle of winter ♪ ♪ like a hard candy with a surprise center ♪ ♪ how do i get better once i've had the best ♪ ♪ you said there's tons of fish in the water so the waters i will test ♪ ♪ he kissed my lips i taste your mouth he pulled me in i was disgusted with myself ♪ ♪ 'cause when i'm with him i am thinking of you thinking of you ♪ ♪ what you would do if you were the one who was spending the night ♪ ♪ oh, i wish t

perry in columbus. she is going to start throwing her weight around. her popularity. steve: keep in mind, she is deeply popular with the core g.o.p. so, you think about what she said yesterday, you know, i'm going to get out, you know, why stick around while the vultures circle my final year. i'm a lame duck anyway. let sean take over. she had a very not so subtle message to people on tv and people who have great big barrels of ink. listen to this. >> first, some straight talk for some, just some in the media. you have such important jobs. reporting facts and informing the electorate and exerting power to influence. you represent what could and should be a respected honest profession that could and should be a corner stone of our democracy. democracy depends on you. and that is why -- that's why our troops are willing to die for you. so, how about in honor of the american soldier, you quit making things up. [cheers and applause] steve: there you go. brian: that's what she says is one of the reasons. gretchen: the press will still follow sarah palin like a vulture. they stil

perry. first this is "today" on nbc. ñ# >>> good morning. it's happy friday, tgif. steve of you ♪ ♪ what you uld do if you were the one who was spending the night ♪ ♪ oh, i wish that i was looking into your eyes ♪ ♪ you're like an indian summer in the middle of winter ♪ ♪ like a hard candy with a surprise center ♪ ♪ how do i get better once i've had the best ♪ ♪ you said there's tons of fish in the water so the waters i will test ♪ ♪ he kissed my lips i taste your mouth he pulled me in i was disgusted with myself ♪ ♪ 'cause when i'm with him i am thinking of you thinking of you ♪ ♪ what you would do if you were the one who was spending the night ♪ ♪ oh, i wish that i was lookininto ♪ ♪ you're the best and yes i do regret how i could let myself let you go ♪ ♪ now the lesson's learned i touched it i was burned oh i think you should know ♪ ♪ cause when i'm with him i am thinking of you thinking of you ♪ ♪ what you would do if yowere the o who was spending the night ♪ ♪ oh, i wish that i was looking into your eyes eyes ♪ ñ >>> our time right now is 9:56. we have a hazy sun s

steve: meanwhile, remember the story about the minority children who were kicked out of a mostly white swim club. they are going to disney world. it's all thanks to actor director tyler perryg the entire tab to send all 65 kids from a philadelphia day camp to walt disney world. the swim club still insisting this morning the kids were not kicked out because of race but because of safety issues. brian. brian: we showed you this amazing video yesterday. two off duty firefighters along with a crowd of ordinary people did something extraordinary they used pipes to smash the windows of this burning suv to save the lives of her mother and two children. alisyn: joining us now are two brave firefighters brothers john and joel. >> hard to hear. brian: having trouble hearing? >> ok. alisyn: maybe our cameraman could stop talking to them for a second so we could. john and joel, you can hear us? >> yes, we can. alisyn: oh great. it's so great to see you guys. what hurricane lien effort you did with that burning suv. tell us what the moment was like when you got inside the suv and you realized that there was a baby strapped into a car seat in there? >> chaotic, horrific, those kind of w

. >> what makes steve perry so mad? with little responsibility, zero accountability. our parents telling us what to do... how to behave. now, all of a sudden, we're there, in that role, at that time in our lives where everyone and everything is depending on us. it's a scary feeling, but it's also a good one. especially when i'm confident someone's there for me. >>> in a perfect world -- >> no one would dare tell me -- >> you're too young to understand. >> when in fact. >> in fact i understand anger. >> i understand pain. >> i understand hope. >> i understand change. >> as it turns out, i'm not too young after all.