Data From Pupil Led to Trouble With Boss, Attention From FBI : Carter Papers Made Teacher’s Life ‘Hell’

History teacher Jim DeLisio says that he began a year of “sheer hell” on the day that one of his eighth-grade students dropped a briefcase full of Carter Administration papers on his desk.

Discovery of the papers on Jan. 19, 1984, the day they were delivered to his Ingomar Middle School classroom in Pittsburgh, drew the attention of the FBI, a congressional panel and the national media.

The papers, dated shortly before the October, 1980, presidential debate in Cleveland between Jimmy Carter and challenger Ronald Reagan, were similar to papers that had been spirited away from the Carter White House and used to brief Reagan.

Both the FBI and a House Post Office and Civil Service subcommittee headed by Rep. Donald J. Albosta (D-Mich.) were investigating how Carter’s debate briefing papers and other materials had been transferred to the Reagan campaign.

Almost immediately, DeLisio realized what he had and, after unsuccessful attempts to contact the student’s mother and school officials, he called the FBI. For this act of citizenship, his colleagues belittled him, the school reprimanded him and the only support the government gave him was the FBI’s official “no comment.”

“I’m bitter and I’ve been angry since day one,” DeLisio said. “I kept it to myself because I didn’t want it to be sour grapes. But it was sheer hell.”

Belonged to Powell

DeLisio said that the papers, brought to school by Kristin Preble, then 13, apparently belonged to White House Press Secretary Jody Powell and provided insight into the Administration just before the debate.

“The debate book itself, that was kind of dull,” DeLisio said. “The interesting thing was a bunch of loose-leafs from the White House. Jimmy Carter knew he was going to lose the election. There was a memo to the White House staff that said it was going to take a miracle for him to win.”

DeLisio knew the papers were important.

“I was sitting in my homeroom reading a newspaper article about Congress’ postponing hearings on the (Carter) debate papers because of lack of evidence,” he said.

Debate Briefing Book

Months earlier, it had been disclosed that Reagan’s campaign had seen a copy of Carter’s debate briefing book. That set off FBI and congressional investigations into the source of those papers and other leaked materials.

“I started looking through (the briefcase) and I couldn’t believe what I saw,” he said. “Everyone was looking for that damned book, and here it is in my lap.”

DeLisio tried to contact his principal and assistant principal, both of whom were too busy to talk, and Kristin’s mother, who was not at home.

He then spoke to a guidance counselor--next in the school’s chain of command--and was told, “The best thing that could happen is you give it back to the student.”

Advised to Call FBI

DeLisio took the papers home that night and called a relative who worked in the Justice Department. The relative’s advice was to call the FBI.

Despite that advice, DeLisio continued to call the student’s mother; but, by 9:30 the next morning, when he still had not reached her, he contacted federal agents.

United Press International was tipped the same day that the papers had been discovered, and UPI contacted the school.

The assistant principal told UPI that he knew nothing of the papers but managed to track down DeLisio and the student and brought the girl to the phone. Kristin told UPI that her father, who died in 1982, had found the papers in a Cleveland hotel room.

As the news spread, reporters and the FBI descended on the school. Mrs. Preble issued a statement saying that her daughter “brought in papers related to the presidential debates of 1980 to share with her class. The agents took all these papers with them.”

In the ensuing days, DeLisio came under fire from school Supt. Lawrence Bozzomo, who believed that the teacher had spoken to the media to draw attention to himself.

In a letter of reprimand dated Jan. 30, 1984, Bozzomo told DeLisio: “I cannot accept your contention that your behavior . . . was within acceptable professional limits and ethics.”

He criticized DeLisio for not giving him or Mrs. Preble the papers.

“It was common sense,” Bozzomo said in an interview. “It had nothing to do with procedure. A youngster brings a notebook in for show-and-tell and you call the FBI and the media before you even walk into principal’s office?

“The next day, the mother is confronted with media people before she even knows what was going on, and the school district was confronted with television cameras before we knew what was going on.

“He acted more out of self-serving attitude. The way the thing unfolded, he was more concerned with his own welfare rather than the welfare of the child, the school district or his country,” Bozzomo said.

DeLisio, who has moved to South Carolina, denied the charge, saying that he turned down many offers to appear on national television.

The only reason he talks to the media now, he says, is because the school district publicized his reprimand without telling his side of the story.