School officials at the Philadelphia High School for the Creative and Performing Arts are apologizing to parents after allowing a man who posed as a fake DJ into their classrooms to talk to students.
The Philadelphia School District failed to do a background check on Jerez Coleman who posed as a professional DJ for singer and X Factor judge Alicia Keys. A student from the school did her own investigative work after meeting with Coleman, telling Action News that he was “acting shady.”
“We sang for him. He talked to the students in a very low tone. We really couldn’t understand him. We were told that he was the DJ for Alicia Keys, but it doesn’t seem like that is the case.”
The Creative and Performing Arts student went home and researched the man who identified himself as DJ Official Silent Assassin. The student, who wishes to remain anonymous, discovered that the fake DJ was in fact Jerez Coleman, a man who previously did 22 months in jail after making multiple threats to kill President Obama and blow up the DC Metro System.
Coleman also made an appearance on the MTV series Catfish where he pretended to be a well-known rapper.
The student and her mother alerted school officials. “When I read that on the internet, it was really alarming,” the student shared. “He got pictures with students and they recorded us singing.”
Coleman visited two classrooms, interacting with students after arriving at the school with two fake body guards and two camera women this past Thursday.
Philadelphia School District spokesperson Lee Whack has since released a statement on behalf of Philadelphia High School for the Creative and Performing Arts.
“Today, there was an individual that had no business being in one of our schools. The individual was in the school for approximately 30 minutes and spoke to approximately 60 students,” Whack stated.
“There was a member of our district staff who did not follow our typical policy and procedures when it come to permissions of visitors in our schools.”
The student and her mother are concerned for students who may have exchanged their phone number or social media accounts with the man who posed as a fake DJ.
“So now they have all these children’s Instagrams and they might have their phone numbers,” she said. “They have their pictures and they videotaped them without our consent. This is just absurd.”
“He’s a big-time fraud,” said the student’s mother. “We need to be more careful, because in this day and age all kinds of things are taking place.”
