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White, Wealthy School District Hires PI To Prove Live-In Nanny’s Daughter Doesn’t Belong There (UPDATE)
A school district filled with children who come from predominantly white, wealthy households clearly thought something was amiss when they glanced out at the sea of white children they normally find roaming the halls of their schools, and that perfect lily-whiteness was tainted by the sight of a little brown girl. So they hired a private investigator to get to the bottom of it.
The little girl in question is seven-year-old Vivian. Her mother, Maria, is a live-in nanny to one of the many affluent families living in Orinda, California. The city’s population is over 80% white and just barely four percent Latino. Earlier this month district officials hired a private investigator to determine whether Vivian was an actual resident of Orinda. They determined she was not – even though she and her mother reside in a home inside the district five days out of the week. They gave the little girl until December 5th to leave the school.
Miriam Storch is a 35-year-old working mother who employs Maria and provides housing as part of the conditions of her live-in nanny job. She said she was “flabbergasted” when she received the first letter from the district November 12. She told Inside Bay Area, “It never occurred to me that the school district would hire a private investigator. Why wouldn’t they just come to us and talk to us about it if they had concerns?”
Storch wrote a three-page letter to the district explaining the live-in situation, but to no avail.
Harold Freiman, the school district’s attorney, said he could not speak about the specific investigation, citing student confidentiality laws; however, he said the district would never discriminate.
“Each case is unique to the circumstance of the case,” he said. “This district wouldn’t move forward unless they found concrete evidence.”
Freiman said districts must ensure legitimate residency of students and balance individuals’ rights while “preserving the resources of the district for all the students.”
