Daley seeks more help for ex-con students

CHICAGO, May 3 (UPI) -- Chicago Mayor Richard Daley says ex-convicts deserve an education and high schools for adults should get more funding.

Daley Saturday handed out diplomas to more than two dozen ex-cons as the keynote speaker at St. Leonard's Adult High School graduation, telling the students he hopes to find the money to expand the school, the Chicago Sun-Times reported Sunday.

"America can't shut its eyes and say it's not our problem," he said. "Everybody's going to fall in life. … Helping hands are more important than the foot on someone's head."

The school, part of St. Leonard's Ministries, was founded in 1954 on Chicago's poverty-stricken West Side. One parolee, Avery Cordero Brooks-Davis, 21, told the Sun-Times he "was selling drugs and gang-banging" before a two-year prison stretch, and that the St. Leonard's opened his eyes.

"I've inspired a couple of guys to come to the next class," he said, while standing in his red graduation gown and mortarboard, the newspaper reported.