Ex-Con High School Grads Get Second Chance

By Staff in News on May 5, 2009 4:10PM

Hoping to leave behind histories of drug addiction, prostitution and prison time, 30 ex-convicts got a second chance at life on Saturday when they received high school diplomas. The graduates earned their diplomas in a 14-week adult high school program for ex-offenders offered by St. Leonard’s Ministries, a social service agency on the West Side.

Mayor Daley was the keynote speaker at St. Leonard’s Adult High School graduation and handed each graduate their diploma. "Everybody is going to fall in your life," Daley said. "If you don't have a helping hand, someone is going to work to keep you down. Helping hands are more important than the foot on someone's head." Daley also told graduates the city has changed its employment policies to make it easier to hire workers trying to re-enter society after serving jail time.

Among this year’s graduates was Avery Cordero Brooks-Davis, a parolee who grew up on the South Side, where “I was selling drugs and gang-banging” he said. He went to prison in 2006 for armed robbery. At age 21, Brooks-Davis was among the youngest students, most of who are in their late 20s and early 30s. "I didn't know anything about the whole genetic theory and how the body functions," he told the Sun-Times. Brooks-Davis hopes to attend Kennedy-King College for communications. Attending law school and, ultimately, being a public defender are also in his plans.

Jitu Brown, a St. Leonard's history teacher, expressed his admiration for his students as they worked to earn they're second chance, receiving both an education and job training. Brown told the Tribune, "Imagine someone who is on drugs or was a prostitute, to be shunned by your family and be where no one respects you, and to say, 'I am going to get up one more time.'" [Tribune, Sun-Times]

Post by: Camela Furry