Sen. Kamala Harris Regrets S.F.-Born Truancy Policy [View all]
Sen. Kamala Harris, months into her 2020 bid for president, said she regrets that her crackdown on parents of truant students resulted in jail time in some jurisdictions.
The California senator and Oakland native said the policy, which first started in 2008 when she was San Francisco District Attorney, had “unintended consequences” during a Pod Save America episode that aired Tuesday evening. The policy, which threatened parents with prosecution to kickstart a plan to end chronic truancy, was criticized as punitive and as adding to criminalization — as are other aspects of her record as a “progressive prosector.”
No parents in San Francisco went to jail but when Harris pushed the practice as Attorney General, she says other parts of the state took it farther than intended. In 2012, one Central Valley mother in the Hanford was sentenced to 180 days in jail for failing to get her children to school.
“My regret is that I have now heard stories where, in some jurisdictions, DAs have criminalized the parents,” Harris told host Jon Favreau. “The thought that anything I did could have led to that…that certainly was not the intention. Never was the intention.”
Read more: http://www.sfweekly.com/news/sen-kamala-harris-regrets-s-f-born-truancy-policy/
If I were to vote in a presidentialprimary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
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