Kamala Harris called for removing police officers from schools to combat racial “inequalities” in a 2019 interview

Vice President Kamala Harris advocated for removing police officers from schools in an effort to “demilitarize” school campuses, according to footage uncovered in 2019.

“What we need to do is demilitarize our schools and get police officers out of schools. We need to face reality and tell the truth about the inequities around school discipline. In particular, I have seen Black and Latino children being expelled or suspended as early as elementary school,” Harris said in 2019 in South Carolina, when she was serving as a senator from California and running for president during the 2020 cycle.

Harris joined the 2019 Presidential Justice Forum at Benedict College in Columbia, South Carolina, in October of that year before dropping out of the 2020 race and being announced as President Biden’s running mate. A college student asked Harris how she would go about expunging the records of minors to allow them to attend college, including expungement of “a criminal offense,” not “just an expungement for marijuana.”

“It’s a great question and a great argument, because when we talk about reforming the criminal justice system, we have to understand that the juvenile justice system is in dire need of reform, and I know that. And I’ve seen it,” Harris responded, touting her 2020 campaign “action plan” on criminal justice reform.

Crime spikes force schools to reinstate resource officers as defunding movement collapses

“I will end solitary confinement, including what we need to do to talk about and commit to reducing juvenile incarceration. And have guidelines in terms of exactly what those numbers should be, because right now, in so many states, children are being incarcerated for… a child incarcerated for a couple of days is traumatic, let alone the weeks, months, and years that we’re seeing happen,” he explained.

Harris has not yet released her policy platform for the 2024 election cycle. Fox News Digital reached out to the Harris-Walz campaign to ask if she still supports removing officers from schools but did not immediately receive a response.

Harris’ comments about removing officers from schools preceded the protests and riots that swept the nation in 2020 after the killing of George Floyd during an interaction with Minneapolis police and as the coronavirus pandemic and related lockdowns upended society.

National debate sparked calls to remove police officers from schools

As calls to defund the police rang out from coast to coast in response to Floyd’s death and the deaths of other Black Americans during interactions with police, school districts in liberal areas of the country also began cutting ties with police departments on the grounds that officers posed a greater threat to students of color than protecting schools from potential threats.

In 2020, just days and weeks after Floyd’s death, school districts in cities including Minneapolis, Portland, Denver, and Oakland voted to terminate their contracts with police departments and remove school resource officers from campuses. Education Week researchers found in 2022 that at least 50 school districts between May 2020 and June 2022 eliminated officers or cut budgets for school resource officers.

ALEXANDRIA CITY COUNCIL REINSTATES SCHOOL RESOURCE OFFICERS AFTER TEACHER AND PARENT MADE CALLS OVER VIOLENCE

As students returned to classrooms when pandemic lockdown orders were lifted, violence frequently plagued schools, prompting parents in many districts to call on school leaders to reinstate officers. In Montgomery County, MarylandIn 2022, school district officials partially reversed course on removing officers after a shooting injured a 15-year-old. And last year, the D.C. City Council quietly repealed a plan that worked to phase out officers from schools as juvenile crime rose in the nation’s capital.