Nab ex-teach in sex abuse of young kids

A former Bronx charter school music teacher once lauded for a “tough-love blend of terror and teasing” secretly sexually abused students as young as 12, federal prosecutors said Monday.

Jesus Concepcion, 48, a wellknown former middle school orchestra conductor at KIPP Academy in the Bronx, carried on perverted relationships with four young students between 2002 and 2007, plying them with gifts and private cell phones while coercing them into sex in the school, motel rooms and his car, prosecutors alleged in disturbing Manhattan Federal Court documents unsealed Monday.

Concepcion was arrested Saturday in Charlotte, N.C., on charges including enticing a minor to engage in illegal sexual activity and inducing child pornography.

“Teachers serve as trusted figures to their students as they work to educate and prepare them for the future,” said FBI Acting Assistant Director Jacqueline Maguire. “As alleged, Mr. Concepcion egregiously breached that trust as he abused his position to coerce students — some as young as 12 years old — into having sex with him.”

KIPP NYC officials confirmed Monday that Concepcion is a former employee. School officials cooperated with law enforcement after the allegations against the educator emerged in 2017.

“We are deeply saddened that former students experienced abuse while attending a KIPP NYC school. We are hopeful that with today’s arrest, justice will finally be served,” said a KIPP NYC spokesman.

Concepcion, who grew up in the Bronx and earned a degree from Juilliard, won acclaim as a hardcharging school orchestra conductor, performing at Carnegie Hall and attracting national media attention for an approach The New York Times called “a tough-love blend of terror and teasing.”

But prosecutors said behind the scenes, Concepcion used his influence to prey on vulnerable young students. Concepcion “singled out the minor victims for attention,” giving them money, gifts, phones and alcohol. Victims thought “they were in a romantic relationship with him,” prosecutors said.

Some of the abuse took place when the students were attending high schools in other states, according to court documents. Attempts to reach Concepcion’s lawyer Monday were unsuccessful.

According to the 2008 book “Sweating the Small Stuff,” in which Concepcion is heavily featured, the teacher left KIPP in 2007 to start a consulting business working with school orchestras.