Mike Feinberg, co-founder of KIPP in 1994, was swiftly fired in 2018 after two KIPP graduates accused him of sexual impropriety.
Valerie Strauss reports:
A founder of the KIPP charter school network who was fired in 2018 after being accused of sexual misconduct is suing the organization, saying the allegations were false and that his career and reputation have been destroyed by the actions of KIPP.
KIPP executives called the lawsuit filed by Mike Feinberg “baseless and frivolous,” and said they “regret” that he is putting his accusers and the “entire KIPP community through further distress.”
Feinberg, who in 1994 co-founded a Texas school that grew into the nation’s largest charter network, filed the lawsuit Thursday and is seeking a jury trial and punitive and other damages. He has consistently denied an allegation that he sexually abused a student in the late 1990s. The allegation Since the Washington Post is triggered two investigations…
Feinberg’s lawsuit says that he was never given “detailed information about the allegations” against him and that if he had, he could have “provided facts that would have disproved them.”
“KIPP’s public statements following Mike’s termination were false and inflammatory,” the lawsuit says. “KIPP knew that such a serious allegation would destroy Mike’s career in education and be personally devastating to him, his family and friends. But KIPP didn’t care. What mattered most to KIPP was that Mike be removed and his career be ruined. In that, KIPP succeeded.”
Since the Washington Post is behind a paywall, here is another account, in a Texas paper, with more detail.
On top of punitive damages, Feinberg is suing for actual damages, including mental anguish, loss of society and loss of earning capacity.
Can’t read the WaPo article, but wow is that Texas article one-sided. Maybe I missed it, but did they even ask KIPP for their side of the story? The whole article is an oh-poor-me for dear Mike Feinberg who, of course, has never had anything but noble intentions and has never done a thing wrong in his life.
‘….the firm could not confirm the 20-year old abuse allegation”…. Why the big delay in taking action? That is not really unexplained.
It is almost like hoping that the Taliban will fight Isis in Afghanistan, and it will result in a death match for both sides. That’s my wish for Feinberg and KIPP while we stand on the sidelines an watch.
Oh, the web they weave! I don’t know who is wrong and who is wronger, but they are like cannibals without a meal. Let the games begin
“who is wrong and who is wronger” 🙂 🙂
Wrong and wronger! LOL. Very witty!
When I saw the press conference with his wife Colleen Dippel by his side, it hit me that what MIGHT be a big factor in motivating this is the situation with his children, Gus and Abadit (both currently in elementary school, if memory serves.) I’m guessing that they either discovered the details of this situation on-line — or their parents broke the news to them before they did eventually discover this on the internet. This was then followed by passionate and vehement denials from the two parents. There’s no way that he can ever maintain those children’s respect or esteem if they ever conclude that this stuff happened.
I would never again respect my dad if I discovered that my dad had done this. Would anyone in that situation?
Perhaps one of his kids said, something to the effect of “Well, Dad, if you’re innocent, why don’t you sue them? Why are you shutting up and walking away with your tail between your legs. Why are you letting them get away with this?”
And here we are.
One of the accusations is that, a couple years ago, two female KIPP alumna, and current KIPP employees accused him of some kind of impropriety (sex?) or harassment. One of them later had a change of heart and stopped cooperating, but the other held firm with her accusations.
However, the other, earlier accusation was far worse. It was alleged that twenty years earlier (late 1990’s), he committed statutory rape on a female KIPP middle school student. That would put the alleged victim in the range of 9 (for late birthday) or 10 — to — 13 (again, late birthday) or 14. This came to light, or arose out of an accusation in 2007, when a current KIPP student, and relative of that same alleged victim, approached his or her teacher when he/she recognized Feinberg when he was making a school visit and said,
“You know that guy (Feinberg) committed statutory rape on my cousin?”
The teacher told the administration, which then went into damage control mode. Eventually, the alleged victim/cousin lawyered up, and she was paid a settlement, one which … a la Harvey Weinstein … required her and her family to shut up about the whole thing, with all of them taking it to the graves. (You notice how those almost NEVER work, or frequently don’t work, with the truth coming out eventually?)
At the time — and no one on either side disputes this — Feinberg was vehemently opposed any such settlement, and, as in the press conference, passionately denied any impropriety. While the settlement achieved the goal of keeping this sordid affair out of the public realm, Feinberg argued that, even privately, it left him with a taint of guilt. If necessary to totally clear him, Feinberg wanted to go public, if need be, with a full-blown civil trial, then win in that trial, and not pay a damn cent to the lying (in Feinberg’s opinion) accuser / alleged statutory rape victim of Feinberg.
Fast-forward 10 years or so to 2017, and the two KIPP alumna, and current KIPP female employees accused him of sexual harassment and impropriety (intercourse?). KIPP then hired an independent investigation law firm to get to the bottom of this.
Eventually this team discovered the 2007 statutory rape accusation and pay-off, and added that to their investigation. They ultimately concluded that they couldn’t conclusively prove anything, and recommended “closing the matter.” The investigative team did not, as Feinberg in lawsuit, “clear him,” and said there was evidence and appearances that went against Feinberg’s claim of innocence, just not enough.
Thus a second law firm was hired to investigate, and that one concluded that Feinberg was guilty of at least some of the accusations.
Feinberg’s lawyer said that KIPP higher-ups should have.stopped with the first team’s conclusions. He said that they were out to get Feinberg, and that they would have kept hiring investigative law firms — as many as necessary — until they got the “Feinberg is guilty” conclusion which they want. Perhaps they would have. We’ll never know now.
What’s really dramatic is that in Jay Mathew’s pro-KIPP gush-fest book WORK HARD, BE NICE, Feinberg and his partner and co-founder of KIPP Dave Levin were closer than brothers. However, now that’s all changed. The lawsuit cites two people at the top of the KIPP pyramid as the dastardly villains making all the calls on this: Dave Levin and current KIPP CEO Richard Barth (husband of TFA founder Wendy Kopp … that KIPP-Kopp marriage pulls in over $1 million-a-year in combined household income … while I save aluminum cans for money to supplement my teaching … what’s up with that?).
Another wrinkle to this story is that, apparently, they didn’t go to the police in 2007, and only did so at the insistence of the first investigative team. Isn’t Texas a mandatory reporting state? Hmmm …
Furthermore, while Feinberg was privately barred by the KIPP Board of Directors from having any unsupervised contact with KIPP students from 2007 on, he nevertheless did, according to some, have such contact during school visits. On top o that, no parents were ever informed of this secret ban on the no contact with students rule imposed on Feinberg.
If I were a KIPP parent, I’d be blazing mad about that one.
There is certainly a lot of irony here, since the bottom line seems to be that Feinberg is saying he did not get his due process rights. Feinberg doesn’t like that he can get fired and smeared in the media without having a chance to review all the charges against him and maybe be able to ask some of the people claiming he did things some questions directly instead.
But of course, charter schools don’t believe in allowing anyone due process and we certainly didn’t see Feinberg caring when other charters smear their students as violent to pretend they had no choice but to suspend them (when they are 5 or 6!) or dump them.
It does seem as if Feinberg is being treated a bit like Al Franken and it is unclear if lots of different kinds of vague charges are being lumped together so that everyone in America and Feinberg’s own children are left with the impression that KIPP has clear and convincing evidence that Feinberg has sexually assaulted 9 or 10 year old children and bunch of other females as well.
Generally, charter CEOs demand enormous amounts of evidence (like a videotape they can’t deny) and so does the media before any media organization will ever characterize charter CEOs as anything but miracle-workers achieving success with every student. So it is certainly unusual that Feinberg was treated like the children at charters and their families are treated. He got publicly trashed just like the charters and their media enablers will publicly trash any children if their parents complain. No due process allowed.
Feinberg helped promote this system and now he is getting a taste of what it is like. But since the current administration at KIPP also helped promote this system, I am glad he is suing them so that their willingness to endanger the lives of so many children just so they could keep their brand untainted and thus keep raking in their outrageously high salaries are made public.
Oh poor Al Franken. He lost his job after harassing/groping/force-kissing a mere eight women.
Or were all eight of those women lying? Including the Democratic staffer?
As I said in my post, the article says that back in 2007 when he was first accused, Feinberg wanted all the accusations aired in a public trial and fought against paying off the accuser (even though it would have kept this all quiet).
When Al Franken was accused, he also asked only for due process and was saying nothing to defend himself because all he wanted was the right to due process that the Senate already had set up for these kinds of accusations.
dienne77, lots of right wing people agree with your POV “8 women accused him of groping and force-kissing them” so he must be fired. Franken didn’t want to cover up those charges, he wanted a full investigation. That is what teachers also say when they are sent to the rubber room or accused of something. They want their due process. Now if you don’t like that, you have something in common with the people who say that the union protects child molesters. Wasn’t there some famous privatizer who kept focusing on that to drum up anger against the union who were supposedly only there to protect those dangerous teachers.
^^Found it and posted below. It was Campbell Brown. “Teachers Unions Go To Bat For Sexual Predators” — prominently featured in the Wall Street Journal
I know of a few instances where students have made false accusations against teachers. I won’t go into details about those cases, but let’s just say that this whole situation has been handled very badly. In today’s climate, the assumption seems to be that anyone accused of sexual harassment must be guilty. Since the response to sexual harassment in the past has been anything but fair to the accusers, we seem to have gone to the other extreme in automatically assuming the guilt of the accused. There is little doubt that Kipp sought to destroy his reputation. Feinberg has a right to a public investigation of these charges.
Because usually they are guilty! Read Jack’s post above. Feinberg is no saint.
That doesn’t change the fact that he deserves his day in court. He my be a total jerk. He may be as guilty as sin …or not. Jack’s post is convincing if you already are convinced. It should have been taken to court twenty years ago.
Jack’s post also made it clear that Feinberg specifically asked that it be taken to court 20 years and did not want it covered up.
Anyone opposed to due process should be opposed to due process for teachers, too, which is one of the biggest issues that convinces parents to oppose teachers’ union.
It is part of anti-public school propaganda that “the union” means that child abusing teachers can never be fired and will have complete access to your children while you pay their salaries.
Remember when Campbell Brown wrote her own op ed prominently featured in the Wall Street Journal:
“Campbell Brown: Teachers Unions Go to Bat for Sexual Predators” (July 29, 2012)
When requesting due process is mischaracterized as somehow enabling guilty people to go free, the right wing propaganda machine is working very well.
I’m glad that Feingberg filed this lawsuit. I further hope the litigants don’t settle out of court and both sides completely present their evidence against each other in court. This will be wonderful information for future historians of the reform movement regardless of the outcome.
I’m conflicted about this because … yes, believe it or not … it may very well be that Mr. Feinberg is innocent of all charges (or some of them, including the most severe one). I’ve known teachers who’ve had students who — mischievously or maliciously — make false accusation of teachers, later to come clean and recant everything … even after that innocent teacher begins serving prison time. (better late than never) The falsely accusing students’ motives vary, but trust me, innocent teachers get railroaded all the ding-dong day in this country.
However, one thing that I’m NOT conflicted about is my disgust with the past slandering of traditional public school (read: unionized) teachers in which Mike and his wife have engaged over the years. This included criticizing of those teachers having due process before termination (i.e. “it gives them a job for life.”)
You’d think that Mike Feinberg’s wife Colleen would just shut the-eff-up … after her KIPP Founder husband was canned by his fellow KIPP leaders — after an in-depth, six-month investigation undertaken by a third party — for … KIPP leaders claim…
1) molesting a KIPP student (alas, unprosecute-able due to statute of limitations),
and
2) engaging in allegedly coerced affairs with, or harassment of former KIPP students working on staff at the KIPP org.
But no. That’s not the case.
During the previous 20 years until this (and before), the public pronouncements and tweets from Colleen Dippel, Mike Feinberg’s wife, were sometimes full of unionized teacher hate, promoting every right-wing canard against teachers: lazy; finished by 2:30; summers off; Cadillac health care/pensions, unaccountable, etc. (She seems trapped in the year 2010.)
Of course, there’s the “job for life, can’t be fired” baloney, and bad teachers are protected by evil unions…
Mind you, THIS IS FROM A WOMAN WHOSE HUSBAND — innocent or not — WAS TREATED, FOR TEN YEARS AT LEAST, WITH TOTAL LENIENICY, AND ALLOWED TO STAY ON THE JOB AT KIPP FOR THOSE TEN YEARS AFTER A SECRET SETTLEMENT WAS PAID TO ONE OF HER HUSBAND’S ALLEGED VICTIMS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And because this was all kept secret, Colleen’s husband was allowed to interact with children unsupervised, and with that settlement kept secret from KIPP parents with whom Feinberg was interacting???!!!
Could you imagine condemnation from the corporate ed. reform world would be if a unionized teacher, or … say … an anti-corporate-ed-reform and/or pro-union administrator in a public school received this kind of leniency?
When this all went public, Mike lashed out at not having been provided “due process” before being canned, WHILE FOR DECADES HE HAS BEEN SUPERVISING A CHAIN OF HUNDREDS OF SCHOOLS WHERE THOSE TEACHERS HAVE –ZERO– DUE PROCESS, AND HE AND HIS WIFE HAVE URGED TO HAVE THAT SAME NO-DUE-PROCESS JOB CONDITION BE EXPANDED TO MILLIONS OF TRADITIONAL PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHERS???
WTF???!!!!
Since her husband’s ignominious demise — with the news of the decade-old settlement going public — Colleen has only upped her unionized teacher hate.
Case-in-point.
Earlier this year, an article was posted about Senator and presidential candidate Kamala Harris proposing that teacher pay be raised nation-wide, and Colleen went to work:
(NOTE: BELOW, white the first parenthetical is mind, the second parenthetical is Colleen’s, not mine)
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COLLEEN DIPPEL:
Colleen Dippel @ColleenDippel 4h4 hours ago
This (i.e. a unionized teacher’s job, JACK) is also one job that still offers a pension, health benefits, 185 days of work/ year (compared to 231 or more in private sector), the work day ends before 5, & in many states there is tenure. And -* outcomes don’t determine salary* – unlike most other professions.”
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All my colleagues in Los Angeles have just finished an exhausting week setting our classes (some set them up earlier this month), and getting the new school year off the ground, and frankly, I’m beat, so when I re-read this stuff from Colleen, it really makes my blood boil.
In addition, Colleen is also assenting (i.e. expressing implied agreement) to the preceding tweet to which her ABOVE tweet is responding, this one from Erika Sanzi, who condemns unionized teachers’ job protections, which include .. yes .. due process, the same thing Mike and Colleen are hypocritically whining about Mike having been denied:
Here’s Erika’s that part of Erika’s tweet:
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ERIKA SANZI:
” … Oh, and their job is protected regardless of performance. Some would say that too is a national failure.”
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Here’s that entire tweet from Erika
When I get a chance, I’ll post about what happened to the only KIPP school, one in NYC, where the teachers overcame intense opposition from Mike & Dave, and formed a union that lasted ever-so-briefly. It was later mercilessly crushed and eliminated by KIPP’s Co-Founders Mike Feinberg and Dave Levin in large part because one of those teachers’ main demand was …
… wait for it …
… some form of due process!!!!
Mike & Dave waited a year after the KIPP-AMP union’s demise to can all those teachers who voted in favor of forming a union, presumably figuring that a year was a comfortable time frame when they could claim that those teachers’ termination was not in retaliation for earlier forming a union. This was all presumably to send a message to all KIPP teaching staffs around the country… “You’re never getting even one smidgen of due process, so don’t even THINK about forming a union to make that happen, because WE WILL CRUSH YOU, and you’ll get canned for trying to do so.”
Karma is a _ITCH.
I agree with you, Jack. And thank you for posting all this. My very first reaction was that it was so hypocritical for Feinberg to be complaining he didn’t have his due process rights when he (and maybe his wife, too) have made it their business to insist that due process was not important.
They are hypocrites. I’d want him to slink off and experience a bit of what he insisted was the proper way to act (until it affected his own bank account and suddenly he insists it is the right thing to do). But I like to see the entire KIPP charter chain have to release all kinds of information in a public trial that showed how what really mattered to top KIPP administrators was always their own careers. Children were secondary and only had value if they helped what KIPP values most — promoting KIPP and enriching their top administrators by keeping their funders happy at whatever cost to the kids.
Here’s more granular detail on KIPP-AMP unionization controversy
(By the way, “AMP” is one of the stupidest acronyms for a school I’ve ever heard. It stands for “Always Mentally Prepared.” So what? Teachers and students at non-charter schools are usually not “mentally prepared?” Sheesh!)
In 2009, despite extreme pressure not to do so from the current KIPP principal at the time (presumably on orders from Dave & Mike), those KIPP AMP teachers voted to form a union.
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/brooklyn/teachers-brooklyn-charter-school-seek-city-union-membership-article-1.421176
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N.Y. DAILY NEWS:
“Teachers at a Brooklyn charter school want to join the powerful city teachers union – the latest in an effort to organize educators at the 78 taxpayer-funded, privately run schools.
“(KIPP) Administrators were mum Tuesday on whether they’ll oppose the bid at the KIPP AMP Academy in Crown Heights.
” … ”
“KIPP has said for years that they wanted to work with us and are not anti-union, so we hope they will recognize the union,” she said.”
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Dave & Mike had been saying for years. “We’re not anti-union. We’ll respect the teachers’ choice on that regard, whether or not to form a union.”
Were they sincere?
Indeed, and unfortunately, this union lasted only the 2009-2010 school year, as according to UFT Vice-President Leo Casey, Levin and Feinberg hired a union-busting tiger team to pressure as many teachers to vote to decertify the union, which they successfully did in 2010.
https://www.chalkbeat.org/posts/ny/2010/04/23/after-opting-in-kipp-staff-vote-themselves-out-of-teachers-union/
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CHALKBEAT:
“The United Federation of Teachers plans to fight the decision when the teachers have a hearing before the state’s Public Employee Relations Board, arguing that KIPP improperly intimidated teachers, vice president Leo Casey told me today.
“ ‘It really feels like class warfare in a way that is not the case in the public sector,’ Casey said.
“Casey said that an ‘active group’ of teachers remains committed to working with the teachers union, but he would not describe the size of the group on the record, citing concern for them. The union had previously filed complaints with the state and put out fliers accusing KIPP of intimidating teachers.”
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Now, what do you think happened to that “active group” of KIPP teachers still desiring a union?
And why am I bringing this up?
Well, this is relevant to Feinberg’s lawyer fulsome whining about how Feinberg was not “afforded due process” when the KIPP Board of Directors canned him.
Well, here’s how much “due process” Feinberg and Levin afforded those pro-union KIPP AMP teachers. Mind you, this is even after some of them had capitulated to pressure and later voted to decertify the union.
How much “due process”?
Try NONE.
Levin and Feinberg waited a comfortable time — till the end of the 2010-2011 school year — then fired without cause all those KIPP AMP teachers who voted to sign on to unionization in 2009, including even some of those who voted a second time in 2010 against unionization:
https://ny.chalkbeat.org/posts/ny/2011/04/04/a-struggling-kipp-school-plans-to-overhaul-teaching-staff/
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CHALKBEAT: “The concerns were the driving force behind (KIPP AMP) teachers’ decision to join the teachers union against the will of the school’s board. A year later teachers opted out of union membership, kicking off a prolonged fight in which the United Federation of Teachers accused KIPP of intimidating teachers who wanted to unionize.
“Now, the school could experience what teachers initially feared: turnover and instability. It’s unclear how many teachers will lose their jobs.
“A teacher at the school said today that the school’s leadership has informed most of its teachers that they will not have jobs next year.”
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This was pure, vicious retaliation on the part of those two $450,000/year douchebags Dave Levin and Mike Feinberg, sending a message not just to the KIPP AMP teachers, but to all teachers in the KIPP organizaiton to not even think of forming a union, or we, Dave & Mike, are gonna crush you.
If any of you ever try this union sh–, or even THINK of trying it, we WILL crush you, and we’ll use our power to not give you any due process to do so.
Thus, I’m hard pressed to shed any tears for Feinberg now that he’s getting the same sh–ty treatment that he and his partner Dave Levin cruelly dished out to the teachers at their KIPP AMP school.
It’s the ultimate poetic justice.
Oh and here’s the KIPP parents’ reaction to the news that Feinberg was allowed to stay on the job, and interact with students after a settlement was paid to an alleged sexual molestation victim of Feinberg’s … as this local TV news segment details:
http://abc13.com/terminated-kipp-co-founder-denies-misconduct-/3126241/
Apparently, the previously hidden, and still-sealed 2007 civil settlement with one of Feinberg’s alleged victims included a 2-week suspension for Feinberg. Feinberg also kept his seat on KIPP’s Board of Directors, but was instructed that he can no longer be around children!
If it’s that serious, why wasn’t he sent packing?
Parents are furious that not only was Feinberg not simply let go, but also that this settlement, Feinberg’s 2-week suspension, and Feinberg’s ban from interacting with students were all kept secret, with parents kept totally in the dark until now.
Indeed, no parent was ever told that “Feinberg was reportedly instructed he couldn’t be around students or at the school unsupervised.”
Why weren’t we told of this?! furious parents complained.
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KTRK TV News:
“Parents wonder why Feinberg wasn’t let go back then.
“If somebody at the top can get away with two allegations with a slap on the wrist, what makes us think, as parents, they’re going to take anything else seriously?” said Marcos Alvarez, a KIPP Explore Academy parent. *“If the leader is doing this, what makes you think others aren’t doing this? And that’s the bad part.”
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This HOUSTON CHRONIClLE article BELOW provides more detail about the two students alleging quid-pro-quo sexual harassment. In this case, it involved allegations that Feinberg paid off the tuition of those students — or that he made the offer of such a deal — in exchange for sexual favors:
https://www.chron.com/news/education/article/KIPP-co-founder-Mike-Feinberg-fired-following-3-12647658.php
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THE HOUSTON CHRONICLE:
“KIPP leaders said an independent investigation found ‘credible evidence’ that Feinberg sexually abused an underage female student in the late 1990s and offered two former employees money in exchange for a sexual relationship.
” … ”
“During the review, investigators spoke with a former employee who alleged that Feinberg offered her financial support for continuing her education in exchange for a sexual relationship in the early 2000s, KIPP leaders said.
“Investigators also learned of a similar allegation about the same time involving a second former employee, but the employee declined to cooperate with investigators, KIPP leaders said.
“KIPP officials said investigators found the allegation involving a minor had ‘credibility,’ though they declined to elaborate on evidence corroborating the determination.
“The two harassment allegations were also deemed ‘credible,’ KIPP leaders said. Investigators said they located a financial settlement involving the former employee who cooperated with the review.”
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By the way, bank records such as these are not “he said”/“she said.” stuff. They’re objective evidence. I’m assuming that Feinberg and his attorneys have and will present clear and convincing counter-evidence and/or witness testimony proving that these documents represent an innocent act of financial beneficence on Feinberg’s part, and not evidence of him paying former KIPP students / current KIPP employees for sex.
If not, then it was pretty stupid of Feinberg and his lawyers to bring this lawsuit.