Fact check: Kamala Harris was in the second class of Berkeley Public Schools busing  

Social media users have been sharing content claiming that Kamala Harris lied about being “bused in the 60s due to segregation type issues”. This claim is false.

Examples can be seen  here  and  here . 

In the June 2019 presidential debate, Harris said: “There was a little girl in California who was part of the second class to integrate her public schools. And she was bused to school every day. And that little girl was me.” ( here ) 

Harris did not specify when this was in the 60s. Berkeley Public Schools, Harris’s elementary school district, released a statement addressing Harris’s comment on their website:

“Senator Harris is correct in describing her experience as the second class to be part of the busing integration program. All Berkeley elementary schools were integrated through an innovative two-way busing plan, which was implemented voluntarily by our district beginning in 1968. Kamala Harris joined first grade in 1970, which means she joined a cohort that had entered kindergarten in the second year of the busing program, in 1969.” ( here ) 

More information about the Berkeley Public Schools “Busing Plan for School Integration” can be found  here . 

Since presidential candidate Joe Biden selected Harris as his running mate, misinformation about Harris has increased online. Reuters Fact Check recently debunked various false claims about Harris, visible  here ,  here  and  here . 

VERDICT

False. Kamala Harris was a part of the second class of the busing program at Berkeley Public Schools.

This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work  here  .