Browse archives: 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000 | 1999 | 1998 | 1997 | 1996 | 1995

Published on 01/27/1997 All articles from this issue

Parents begin suit against nursery school where Stiritz worked

printer friendly version

By Joanne Griffith Domingue / Town Crier Staff Writer

A group of parents has filed a complaint against the Los Altos Parent Preschool where their children were allegedly molested during the 1995-1996 school year.

"It's a class action by the parents against the school," said a parent of one of the six victims.

"What this has done to the children has changed their lives forever," the parent said.

Ed Whitehead, director of adult education for the Mountain View-Los Altos Union High School District that operates the 43-year-old nursery school, said the school received notice right after the first of the year.

"As far as we're concerned, it's the first process in filing a lawsuit."

He said the parents say "their children suffered injury, and they hold the adult school responsible.

"We believe we did everything in our power to create a safe environment. We would deny that we did anything wrong," Whitehead said.

Los Altos resident James Alvin Stiritz, 62, known to children as "Grandpa Jim," faces 15 felony charges of child molestation involving five 4-year-old Los Altos girls.

He allegedly molested the girls at the nursery school where he worked as a "parent volunteer" with his grandson.

Stiritz has been in custody since his arrest July 14 in Los Altos and is being held in custody without bail.

The teacher at the nursery school resigned last week, Whitehead said. "It was her choice. This has been very difficult for all concerned."

Enrollment is down at the nursery school, Whitehead said, which is located at the Los Altos United Methodist Church on Magdalena Avenue.

"I'm sure the Stiritz case is one of the reasons. But I believe as parents realize we're a quality program, our enrollment will come back up."

Parents of the victims are angry.

"They (the school) did not protect the children," a parent said. "If the children had been put first, this would not have happened."

Whitehead said that the school is now looking into "all the legal aspects - anything the law will allow - to do background checks on the parent-education students."

Those students are the "parent volunteers" at the nursery school.

To have a child in the nursery school, the parent or adult must enroll in an adult education parent-education class.

The adult education program has 12,000 students and the school does not do background checks on the students.

But now they are looking into checking out "those students who deal with young children," Whitehead said.

In other action in the Stiritz case, yesterday in municipal court in San Jose, attorneys presented motions regarding how the alleged victims will testify during the hearings scheduled for March.

Possibilities under consideration, said defense attorney Mike Armstrong of Palo Alto, include video taping, closed circuit TV or using a screen so that the children cannot be seen by Stiritz during their testimony.

Los Altos Police Detective Suzie Galvez, the lead detective on the molestation charges, has taken a medical retirement from the police department.

But she will be continuing to work with this case on a part-time basis "to see the case through," said Los Altos Police Chief Lucy Carlton.