In no small part, Harris ascended to power on the backs of minority women, women like Cheree Peoples, a victim of Harris’s crackdown on truancy. At the time, Harris was not shy about explaining the rationale for the crackdown.
California schools are funded according to average daily attendance, at the time about $30 per student per day. Harris, whose supporters included teachers’ unions, spoke openly about the need to increase school attendance in order to obtain more money from the state and federal governments.
In addressing this issue, Kamala once declared on camera, “I want money!”
Harris instituted a program in San Francisco beginning in 2007 to threaten parents with arrest and a year in jail if their children missed school. When she became California State Attorney General in 2010, Harris took her “arrest the parents” program statewide. She openly laughed on camera about mailing parents letters that threatened jail time, and boasted about sending her most vicious prosecutors from gang and homicide units to intimidate and prosecute parents who had been arrested.
Cheree Peoples paid little attention when the crackdown was announced. Although her daughter Shayla missed considerable school time, Shayla was handicapped. She was born with the debilitating disease Sickle Cell Anemia. She spent many painful days in the hospital receiving blood transfusions and frequent emergency medical care to manage her pain.
Then too, all of Shayla's absences were excused by her school by way of doctor’s letters from Children’s Hospital. In addition, Cheree Peoples had a “504 Agreement” with the school district which excused Shayla's absences due to her severe handicap and frequent hospitalizations.