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reThe Democratic presidential candidate, Kamala Harris, now hopes to distance herself from a California policy she had defended in the past: to sue the parents whose children missed too many days of school .
In an interview with the podcast podcast "Pod Save America" released Wednesday, Harris said as president that she would not support a law like California that punished parents for absenteeism.
The Californian senator has been criticized for his policy on the presidential campaign. Some see this as a contradiction to his support for criminal justice reform and its goal of reducing mass incarceration.
The policy developed by Harris as a District Attorney in San Francisco threatened parents with the crime of absenteeism, punishable by "a fine of up to US $ 2,500 or a penalty of up to US $ 2,500. punishment of one year of imprisonment ".
She loved politics so much at the time that when she became the Attorney General in 2011, she adopted it at the state level. In his book of 2019 The truths we hold: an American courseHarris said that "setting up a national policy on school absenteeism was one of the reasons I was introduced to the office in the first place".
Harris continues to extol the changes made to the absenteeism program on her website, which indicates that she "has struggled to reduce absenteeism at the elementary school so that every child can exercise his right to education ".
Harris stated that although none of the parents had been jailed under her supervision because of the extent of absenteeism, she regretted that the policy had led to the imprisonment of some parents. Other jurisdictions.
"My regret is that I have now heard stories where, in some jurisdictions, prosecutors have criminalized parents," Harris said. "And I regret that this has happened, and the idea that everything I did could have led it – because it was certainly not the intention, never l & # 39; 39; intention. "
She summarized the lawsuits as "unintended consequences" and presented the program as an effort to prevent young people from being incarcerated later in life.
"I realized that the system was failing in these children and was not providing the services needed to keep them in school, so that their parents could more easily do what these parents naturally wanted to do when they were in school. They parent their children. And so I put a spotlight on it, "she said.
Harris took a different tone about politics while she was District Attorney and Attorney General of California.
"I believe that a child who grows up without education is equivalent to a crime. So I decided that I would start suing parents for absenteeism, "Harris said in a statement. Speech of 2010.
"My office is suing parents in a court of absenteeism that we have created that combines close supervision and responsive family services. To date, I have sued 20 parents of young children for their absenteeism, "Harris wrote in a 2009 editorial." Our revolutionary strategy has worked. "
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