DOC teacher loses licenses for sex with inmate
TRENTON » The hot-for-inmate Department of Corrections teacher who got knocked up twice by a convicted murderer still wanted to teach elementary school classes.
The state Department of Education decided this month it wasn’t a good idea, according to a revocation order obtained by The Trentonian, knocking down all of Chong-Hwa Chang’s arguments.
The state Board of Examiners ruled “teachers serve as role models for their students. Therefore, a teacher’s whole life is subject to scrutiny, not just his/her actions within the schoolhouse doors.”
Chang, of Delran, made national headlines when The Trentonian reported the sordid details.
The former desktop-romp teacher was criminally charged for having a sexual relationship with convicted killer Rashid Walker.
The trysts occurred while Chang, who has two children from a prior relationship, was employed at New Jersey State Prison.
She was charged with, but not indicted on, a charge of seconddegree sexual assault because she was in a supervisory role as a basic education teacher at the prison.
Prosecutors appeared to have all the proof they needed when she admitted in journals to having sex with Walker more than 20 times and getting pregnant by him twice, one that ended in miscarriage, another in an abortion.
Despite the admissions, she was quietly allowed last year in pretrial intervention for three years, partially because Walker didn’t cooperate with prosecutors.
Fired from the DOC after she was charged, Chang agreed to give up her $72,792 a year job teaching inmates. The deal apparently left open the door for Chang to return to teaching in another arena.
And, in an apparent effort to rehabilitate herself, she tried to convince the state to let her keep her elementary teaching certificates, arguing she shouldn’t have to give up them up because she didn’t plead guilty to any criminal charges and the romps happened “outside the classroom setting,”
Imploring the board to consider “all the hardships I have endured,” Chang contended Walker was not her student and the sex had “nothing to do with her role as a teacher.”
She noted the prosecutor Heather Hadley allowed to keep her teaching certificates.
Tasked with determining whether her conduct was “unbecoming,” the board said it offered Chang an opportunity to testify at a hearing to prove why she shouldn’t have to relinquish her teaching certificates.
She was notified by mail of the hearing but it was returned as unclaimed, according to the board’s decision.
The board said Chang didn’t dispute any of the facts against her which were unearthed following a NJDOC Special Investigations Division probe that included a search of Chang’s home and car.
During the search, detectives recovered a detailed journal full of details about her and Walker’s sexcapades at the
prison. Chang’s phone was
searched and showed that she had shared intimate photos with Walker, prosecutors said.
Chang grew close with Walker’s family, showering them with gifts and attending a wedding, prosecutors said.
The board said the former DOC teacher didn’t understand her responsibilities as a teacher to comport herself appropriately.
“This heavy responsibility does not begin at 8:00 a.m. and conclude at 4:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, only when school is in session,” the panel wrote. “Being a teacher requires,
inter alia, a consistently intense dedication to civility and respect for people as human beings.
“In this instance, Chang’s actions in having numerous sexual encounters with an inmate while she taught in a correctional institution demonstrates behavior that falls far short of the role model status expected of teachers.”
Chang, who was born in Korea but is a naturalized citizen, obtained a master’s degree from Rutgers University and began working for the DOC in 2007. She landed the job
through connections her father built as a retired prison guard.
Her lover, Walker, was convicted in 2004 of fatally shooting a 23-yearold coin laundry manager, Javid Patel, during a robbery. Walker was tried twice, and found guilty at a second trial of murder, felony murder and armed robbery and is serving a 60-year sentence at Trenton state prison.
He is not eligible for parole until February 2053.
Chang has a month from when she receives notice of the board’s decision to relinquish her certificates.