Student Objects to Housing Provided by EF School
Says Foreigners Learning English in Santa Barbara Endure Unsavory Conditions
Karim Dahmani, a French man studying at the Education First (EF) International School of English, appeared before the Santa Barbara City Council castigating the housing his school provided as substandard. He said 35 people live in his house, that many students share quarters with six others, and that he shared a bathroom with 14 fellow students. Dahmani is working with Nadia Bernardi, a former house mother for at a Mesa property owned by Dario Pini and rented exclusively to EF students. Bernardi claims that some of the housing provided by EF was so unsafe and unsanitary that students felt compelled shower in their shoes. Some EF students find housing with host families; but the majority, Bernardi claimed do not. School officials declined to comment. Bernardi, a former travel agent who has been passing out informational flyers about EF and soliciting complaints, said she was fired for raising a stink.
