Governor's Call

TEACHER HOPES FOR PARDON THAT WOULD RETURN HER TO CLASSROOM

SACRAMENTO - The state denied Michelle Delk a teaching credential for
the same reason she was so highly regarded in the classroom: her criminal past.

But now Delk, a former drug addict who turned her life around and
taught substance-abuse courses to inmates at the Elmwood Correctional
Facility in Milpitas, is trying to make another comeback.

And she's counting on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to help her do it.
If the governor pardons the most serious felony on her record -- a
burglary conviction from nine years ago -- Delk could get her adult
education teaching credential and return to the classroom.

"I've met all the requirements that are necessary for him to look at
my case, and I think I have satisfied everything I could for him to
say, 'Give this girl a pardon,' " said Delk, 46, a San Jose
grandmother. "I want his autograph on my pardon, that's it."

A spokeswoman for the governor wouldn't say how or when
Schwarzenegger decides to forgive the offenses of Californians. But
she acknowledged pardons rarely occur: Schwarzenegger has granted
three, Gray Davis gave none and Pete Wilson allowed 13.

Delk isn't deterred.

She lost her bid for a teaching credential -- and subsequently her
job -- in June, after a jailhouse graduation where hardened inmates
wept at the thought of her leaving. But she has since compiled an
enthusiastic and influential list of supporters championing her cause.

"She has proven to be an extremely valuable asset in teaching adult
inmate students," Santa Clara County Sheriff Laurie Smith wrote in a
letter to Schwarzenegger. "Her life experiences and her academic
capabilities enable her to inspire the inmates and give them support
in realizing recovery and rehabilitation as a way of life."

Bill Planned

Assemblywoman Rebecca Cohn, D-Campbell, was so inspired by Delk's
work, and those in similar situations, she plans to introduce
legislation next month to allow adult education teachers with certain
felonies in their past to obtain the appropriate credential to teach inmates.

"I don't think the system was designed with this scenario in mind,"
said Cris Forsythe, Cohn's chief of staff, "and I don't think it
should be a reach for people to see it's a simple fix."

Delk, a seven-time inmate at Elmwood, turned her back on the jail in
1997 and later decided to return as a role model for inmates
struggling with drug and alcohol abuse -- after being hooked for 23 years.

For a year, beginning in 2004, she taught inmates -- 64 at a time --
how to overcome addictions. More than 1,000 men have sat through her
lectures at Elmwood.

"It just seems, with her effectiveness, she was called to do this,"
said Anthony "Tony" Williams, her pastor the past eight years at
Maranatha Christian Center of San Jose, where Delk sings in the choir
and helps organize an annual scholarship fundraiser.

Classroom Respect

Delk has earned enormous respect from the inmates because she's been
there, done that. The cocaine, crank, crack. The lying, stealing, conniving.

"I come from the old school: Sit down, shut up, don't do it again,"
said Delk, who was raised in Chicago in homes burdened with
alcoholism and violence. "That's the kind of teacher I am. I'm
brutally honest, and I let you know where this illness is taking you,
and where it will inevitably take you if you continue."

Nearly 30 inmates from Elmwood's M8-G Dorm signed a letter to
Schwarzenegger saying the state Education Code discriminates against
people like Delk who are being punished for past mistakes.

"She has knowledge and experience that speaks to the core of our
problems as addicts," the inmates from the Men of Honor Program
stated in their June 25 letter.

Delk said she has been clean and sober for nearly 10 years.

She encourages addicts not only to keep away from drugs but also stay
out of jail.

"She's very open about her past, about the struggles she's gone
through," said Bob Feldman, programs manager for the county's
Department of Corrections. "And you know, she walks her talk, and she
is a tower of strength, and that's exactly what we need for this population."

But according to the California Commission on Teacher Education,
that's not what the state needs.

After working for about a year with the Milpitas Adult Education
Correction Program, with a temporary teaching credential, Delk was
informed in a June 9 letter that she was being barred from the
classroom because of three felony convictions: burglary, grand theft
and willful child cruelty. Delk said the cruelty conviction resulted
from her 3-year-old daughter ingesting medicine left unattended on
top of a television.

She worked for free for a couple of weeks, so inmates could "see what
it's like when life shows up and how you handle it responsibly; you
just don't throw in the towel when it doesn't go your way."

Employer's Support

She has since taken a job at Support System Homes, a substance abuse
treatment program in Campbell whose president, Andy Lujan, wrote to
Schwarzenegger on Oct. 10, asking him to allow Delk to resume her
effort "in making our community, and our state a better place to live in."

Delk also has persuaded a Santa Clara County judge to expunge her
convictions, and on Nov. 18 she was given a court-issued certificate
of rehabilitation.

The certificate doesn't erase her criminal record, but states she is
"fit to exercise all the civil and political rights of citizenship,"
which makes it easier to fill out job applications, Delk said. But
most importantly, the certificate signed by Superior Court Judge
Ronald Lisk becomes her application for a pardon.

A lawyer for the credentialing commission said that if Schwarzenegger
pardons Delk's first-degree burglary conviction, which unlike her
other crimes is the only one considered a "serious felony," officials
could then consider whether to grant Delk an adult education teaching
credential.

If that happens, she'd be able to reapply for her job.