KUDOS, KAMALA

Kamala Harris has been such a terrible District Attorney that it’s hard to imagine anything good coming out of her office.

Most recently she failed to prosecute a cousin of Mayor Gavin Newsom for what looked like a tight DUI-drugs case. (Mayor Newsom, like DA Harris, gained his present office mostly through the influence of Willie Brown.)

She herself is the subject of a Federal false claims investigation.

[Click on image for source.]

So I was prepared to rag on Kamala when she announced she would pursue criminal sanctions against parents of chronically truant kids (SFGate story).

Great! Murder is out of control, so let’s crack down on hooky.

Upon consideration, this move shows her true concerns and points to a possible gracious exit from her current position in which she is way over her head.

Wikipedia says she has a history of involvement in child welfare legislation and enforcement.

And chronic truancy (more than one-third of school days missed) is almost always the result of a home environment that is not good for children.

I know, from various war stories I’ve heard over the years, that for many children who are growing up in chaotic or abusive family situations the hours spent at school are the safest, most supportive, most predictable and orderly hours in the day.

My Education Informant knew one third-grade boy who had to stay home two or three days a week to watch his infant sister while papa went to the methadone clinic.

In this country, at this time, a child has a right to a primary education. Keeping a child out of school is a crime. This means that a family that’s unable to organize itself well enough to get the kid to school regularly shouldn’t have custody of the kid.

The families need help, but the kids can’t wait. So we applaud DA Harris.

Go Figure:

Summer vacation from school, in this country, came about because children’s labor was needed on the farms. Now, the children are out of school but the law forbids their employment as farm laborers.

Some local commenters seem to think that Barack, if elected, might appoint Kamala Harris Attorney General. This seems like a little hometown grandiosity. Her paltry record and her unsavory associations should prevent such an ascension.

But she could probably handle and enjoy an appointment to head some child warfare branch of the Justice Department.

You go, Kamala! To Washington. And see to it that all the children get a good education.

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