Randall, who grew up poor in Florida, was able to do a couple of things for Levin that made him indispensable, regardless of how many times Charlie came to school drunk or how many sexually-charged comments and inappropriate public acts he initiated with the students under his tutelage.
First and foremost, Charlie would create a positive publicity and marketing machine for Levin's KIPP, one that could get the attention of the corporate media and begin to shake loose the large contributions from New York's philanthrocapitalists and their corporate foundations. Secondly, Charlie knew the South Bronx (having worked as a teacher there since 1972) in ways that Levin, a white privileged nebbish with a Yale degree and no education training and little experience ever would.
And so when Randall suggested a protege who was one of his own former violin students, Jesus Concepcion, as an assistant in 1999, of course Levin went along. So Randall would serve as Concepcion's musical mentor, but he also provided a model for how to successfully molest young school girls. Concepcion observed Randall's grooming techniques that included providing gifts, food, money, rides home and to school. He observed Randall's openly salacious talk at school about students and their mothers in the presence of Levin and other teachers. He observed Randall drinking from the bottle of Johnny Walker Black that Randall kept in the orchestra room. He observed Randall offering girls alcohol, and he was tipped off by Randall as to which girls might be the most vulnerable.
When Randall's behavior finally became too much even for David Levin, who was actively hawking KIPP's musical wares during interviews and media appearance, Jesus Concepcion was ready to assume Randall's position as orchestra director, as well the KIPP Academy's child sexual predator.
In Sweating the Small Stuff: Inner City Schools and the New Paternalism, published by the conservative Fordham Institute in 2008, author David Whitman promotes the cultish behavioral neutering that takes place in No Excuses schools like KIPP. Whitman describes Levin's authoritarian school orchestra leader, Jesus Concepcion, as a "dapper conductor and benevolent baton-wielding despot on the podium" (p. 152). He devotes more than ten pages to Concepcion's "KIPPnotizing techniques." In this brief excerpt, Levin provides the spin:
In the last half-dozen years, the orchestra has performed at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, and the Apollo Theater. During four summer tours, it has given concerts in 18 cities around the country and performed with trumpeter Wynton Marsalis and Al Green, the famed rhythm and blues and gospel singer. Playing at Carnegie Hall is a heady experience for sixth, seventh, and eighth graders from the South Bronx, many of whom had never ventured into Manhattan. But for Concepcion and Dave Levin, the founder of KIPP Academy, the orchestra’s appearances in legendary concert halls are less important than the learning that takes place in a lowly rehearsal room in the South Bronx. 'Jesus is an incredible teacher — the kids come first for him,' says Levin. 'He worries first about building the character skills and academic skills and only then about the orchestra.' The orchestra, Levin adds, is 'such a visual example of what we are trying to teach in every aspect of the school. It demonstrates a type of greatness that is possible when students are willing to work together and sacrifice' (pp. 154-155).
Levin allowed Randall (who died in late 2023) and Concepcion unfettered access into the lives of KIPP children. Both Randall and Concepcion grew up poor, and both knew the South Bronx. Randall had taught there since 1972, and Concepcion grew up just blocks away from where he became KIPP's second star school orchestra leader. As Whitman describes in his paean to the KIPP Model,
. . . Concepcion soon fell in love with the students at KIPP Academy, despite their lack of musical sophistication. In many respects, their stories were his story. He knew what it meant to grow up poor. He made sure to keep a small stash of toiletries in his office to protect orchestra members from feeling embarrassed for going without. He knew what it was like to walk home to the projects alone at night — and after rehearsals started giving several students rides home when a parent or grandmother could not pick them up. He knew, too, that some single parents had chaotic households or demanding work schedules that led their children to be late for school — and so he started driving students to school in the mornings, too (p. 165).
And now we know that Concepcion was also driving KIPP children to New Jersey motels, where he engaged in sexual acts, both "oral and vaginal." And that Concepcion engaged in these sexual acts with at least four middle school children in KIPP's own "music room and in the back room of School-1’s [KIPP's] auditorium," as well as "in his car, at motels, and at his residences."
Former KIPP students have been bringing civil suits alleging sexual misconduct against the Bronx KIPP Academy and its complicit employees since 2015. With Concepcion now sentenced to 30 years for sex crimes committed after KIPP gained autonomy by being granted charter school status in 1998, KIPP can no longer hide behind the New York City Board of Education, pretending to have no culpability in these horrors.
Perhaps now Levin, the KIPP Foundation, and the complicit employees who failed to report what they knew or suspected about sex crimes at KIPP, will be held to account for their failure to protect KIPP students and to do what the law required. Perhaps now the victims will receive some compensation for crimes that can never be fully compensated. Perhaps now KIPP and its negligent employees will come to understand the real meaning of NO EXCUSES.
At this juncture, the most significant difference between KIPP co-founders Mike Feinberg and David Levin is that the KIPP Foundation fired Mike Feinberg for his sexual misconduct, while David Levin still collects over $495,000 every year for sitting atop the KIPP pyramid with the title “Co-Founder.” Of course, Mike Feinberg was, himself, the alleged assailant, while David Levin inexplicably sat on his, er, hands and did nothing while the Bronx KIPP Academy's child sexual predators had their way with school children ages 9-13.
Then, again, Levin’s feigned blindness to the sexual atrocities committed against his students is not “inexplicable” at all. You see, Levin was desperate to get visibility and publicity for his new KIPP Bronx middle school. That was required in order open the money spigot from philanthropists and corporate foundations. What would be more impressive to the New York Times Editorial Board or the pornographically-wealthy nouveaux riche vanguard of self-serving do-gooders (venture philanthropists) over on Wall Street than a group of well-trained black and brown children of the poor and oppressed from The Bronx, no less, demonstrating their ability to play white classical music.
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