Among the skeletons rattling around in presidential candidate Kamala Harris’s closet is her support — while San Francisco’s district attorney and while running for state attorney general — for a law to punish parents for their children’s absences from school.
The story, reported by Huffpost, NPR, and others several years ago, has more recently been publicized by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
Harris supported the harass-parents truancy program when it was conceived in the state legislature, saying that “a child going without an education is tantamount to a crime.” Under the program, which still exists, a school can refer persistent truancy to a district attorney’s office, which can then threaten to prosecute parents.
One victim was Cheree Peoples, who was arrested and handcuffed in 2013 while still in her pajamas. “You would swear I had killed somebody.” Her daughter Shayla had missed twenty days of school in the current school year. Cheree faced a possible penalty of $2,500 or a year in jail.
Shayla has sickle cell anemia and required frequent hospitalization.
Shayla’s mother fought the charges for a long time. Eventually, they were dropped.
Harris bragged about the truancy program while being inaugurated as attorney general. “If you fail in your responsibility to your kids, we are going to work to make sure you face the full force and consequences of the law.”
Today, Harris says the harass-parents law she championed has been abused by others. But isn’t the law itself the abuse?
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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3 replies on “Kamala Harris’s Attack on Parents”
You won’t like to hear this, but I agree with Kamala Harris completely on this issue! All physically and mentally able students should be required to attend — particularly public schools — and all public schools should be publicly supported so that all students can achieve academic proficiency!
To agree with Harris completely, you must support the prosecution of Cheree Peoples, which was undertaken while Harris was Attorney General of the State of California.
Peoples wasn’t prosecuted because it was somehow in the interest of her daughter to go to school rather than to hospital, but because Cheree Peoples seemed to be a soft target.
Opportunities to look good even while behaving sociopathically are afforded to state officials by voters who aren’t bothered to look at real effects once a device seems at cursory examination to have a desired purpose.
Send your child to the local indoctrination center or you will be punished.
Yay America.
–jg