A Northern Virginia private school celebrated as one of the best in the country allegedly expelled three Jewish siblings who endured relentless antisemitic harassment in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023 terror attack on Israel — all while their community celebrated Hitler as a “strong historical leader.”
The Brandeis Center filed the complaint on behalf of the children’s parents, Brian Vazquez and Ashok Roy, against the Nysmith School for the Gifted, a K-8 academy located just an hour outside of Washington, DC, and its headmaster, Kenneth Nysmith.
The complaint asserts that the couple’s 11-year-old daughter faced a “campaign of ostracizing” led by a handful of “popular students” on the sole basis that she is Jewish during the 2024-2025 school year.
The students, in an apparent gross misunderstanding of the conflict, cruelly taunted the girl for the death of her uncle, telling her they were glad he “died in the October 7th attack,” according to the complaint.
Her uncle died years earlier with no relation to the terror attack.
Some students mocked her for being “Israeli” and dubbed Jews as “baby killers,” unabashedly saying that “they deserve to die because of what is happening in Gaza,” the complaint stated.
Others doubled down and insisted that “everyone at the school is against Jews and Israel, which is why they hate you,” according to the complaint.
One middle school social studies project tasked the students to sketch a child-sized drawing including “six traits of a leader” following their studies of Niccolo Machiavelli’s “The Prince,” according to an email from the Nysmith School.
The Frankenstein amalgam included weaponry associated with rulers from Machiavelli’s time and a tie typically worn by modern-day businessmen or politicians.
The drawing’s face, though, depicted a man’s face with Adolf Hitler’s unmistakable toothbrush mustache and slicked-back hair.
Vazquez and Roy reported the repeated incidents to Nysmith, who promised to take action. Weeks passed and no changes were made, according to the complaint.
If anything, all change moved swiftly away from protecting Vazquez and Roy’s daughter as the school soon thereafter cancelled its annual talk hosting a Holocaust survivor to speak with the student body about antisemitism.
Vazquez and Roy had one final meeting with Nysmith on March 11 to address how the harassment escalated ever since the school hung up a Palestinian flag in the school gym mere days after nixing the Holocaust talk.
The Palestine flag hung alongside dozens of others for different countries, including Israel. The parents didn’t take any issue with the Palestine flag being displayed, but were concerned that some students were using it to bolster their claims that “nobody likes [Jewish people],” the complaint stated.
Nysmith, having seemingly run out of patience, abruptly told the couple that their daughter should “toughen up,” the complaint stated.
Two days later, the parents received an email from the school notifying them of their children’s expulsion, effective immediately in spite of their consistent involvement with the community and exemplary grades.
“A healthy partnership is required to help guide and nurture young children through tumultuous times and complex current events. I do not see a path forward without trust, understanding, and cooperation. In our meeting, I felt very clearly that you do not think Nysmith is the right school for your family,” Nysmith wrote.
Vazquez and Roy never anticipated the expulsion and had already paid tuition for the following academic year, the complaint said.
Nysmith’s email noted that the family would receive a check in the mail within two weeks for all fees paid that year and for the following year. It is unclear if the check was ever sent.
“Through [the Nysmith School’s] actions, the administration sent a clear message: bullying is acceptable, as long as it’s against Jewish families. We must all emulate the strength of these parents and their children and stand up to anti-Semitism and its perpetrators, as difficult as it may be,” Kenneth L. Marcus, chairman of the Brandeis Center, wrote in a statement.
The complaint is seeking compensatory damages for a slew of costs such as the children’s online courses and the inclusion of annual antisemitism training for the Nysmith school community.
Nysmith rejected the allegations and asserted that the information circulating online is not complete in an email he forwarded in response to a message seeking comment from The Post, in which he also claimed he was “not aware of any legal action involving the school.”
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