Parents claim Virginia private school expelled 3 siblings after they complained of antisemitism

Fox News

09-07-2025

Two Virginia parents are alleging their three Jewish children were expelled from an elite private school because they complained about antisemitic bullying directed at one of their sixth-grade daughters.
The Nysmith School for the Gifted in Herndon, Virginia — which was honored in 2015 by the Johns Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth as one of the "Top 10 Schools in the World" — has since pushed back on the claims.
The complaint filed with the Virginia Attorney General's Office of Civil Rights alleges that Brian Vazquez and Ashok Roy's three Jewish children were expelled from the Nysmith School on March 13 because "they complained about the school's unwillingness to respond to anti-Semitic harassment of their 11-year-old daughter."
The filing included a photo of a group of children holding a large cartoon drawing appearing to depict Adolf Hitler. It was part of a social studies class project in which students were assigned to draw a composite of a "strong historical leader."
"The school had allowed anti-Semitism to take root in her class," the complaint says. "That photo, featuring the unmistakable face of Adolf Hitler, was shared with the entire school community. It was followed by a pattern of persistent and severe anti-Semitic harassment of Complainants' young daughter."
The parents say they met with the school's owner and headmaster, Kenneth Nysmith, about how their daughter was "being harassed and bullied because she is Jewish, including persistent taunting about the October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attacks, which resulted in the deaths of over 1,200 Israelis and 251 others being taken hostage, and a campaign of ostracizing her because she is Jewish," the complaint says.
The sixth-grade girl told her parents that the children had placed pro-Palestine stickers on school-issued laptops and lockers, and pointed at their stickers and taunted her for being "Israeli."
"In front of her classmates, the bullying children looked at their daughter, and called Jews 'baby killers,' and said that they deserve to die because of what is happening in Gaza," the complaint says. "Pointing at the other children, the bullies told their daughter that everyone at the school is against Jews and Israel, which is why they hate you."
"Nysmith promised to take action – but did nothing," the parents alleged. "A few weeks later, after Mr. Nysmith decided to hang a Palestinian flag in the Nysmith School gym, the harassment of their daughter grew more severe."
After telling the headmaster that the harassment their daughter was experiencing had become much worse, the parents claim Nysmith "told them to tell their daughter to 'toughen up' and abruptly ended the meeting," the complaint says.
Two days later, the complaint alleges, Nysmith "retaliated – notifying Complainants in an email that all three children were expelled effective immediately, days before their mid-semester report cards, and long after the application periods for other local schools had passed."
The couple's children, now an 8-year-old son and two now-12-year-old daughters, had been enrolled at the school since 2021, were high achievers and had no prior disciplinary action, the complaint says.
The family's lawyer, Jeffrey Lang of the Brandeis Human Rights Center, told Fox News Digital in an interview that his "real concern is that this is an example of antisemitism becoming normalized in our society."
"It's not the college campus. It's not a street protest. This is an elementary school. And it's a worrying trend," Lang said. "Because this should be a case of moral outrage, and frankly, of acknowledgment by the school that it erred. And I would be expecting its commitment to make things better, not to double down and somehow blame our parents and come up with an excuse that suggests that bullying of Jewish children is somehow complicated because of what's happening in Gaza."
"The reason they met with him is because they loved the school and they wanted him to address the antisemitic bullying so their child can remain happy at that school. There was never any talk of leaving," Lang said. "I think when a child is being bullied, and they're in the care of a school, the school is supposed to provide support and help. Not expel the entire family two days later."
"It is a teaching moment and Mr. Nysmith is not meeting that moment right now," he said.
Reached by Fox News Digital, the school's headmaster pushed back on allegations of wrongdoing, and said the photo of the cartoon drawing of Hitler is being "taken out of context."
"It was a social studies project researching the seven traits from Machiavelli's The Prince," Nysmith said in an email to Fox News Digital. "Interestingly enough, I received an email yesterday from a parent expressing their outrage about one of the children who did the project, who was misrepresented. Their child chose Hitler, they are Jewish, and the child's grandmother is a Holocaust survivor. It was not anti-Semitic."
Nysmith provided a photo of the school gymnasium, which is adorned with flags that represent the diverse heritages of our students. He said the school has received requests from families for additional flags whose backgrounds were not represented: one to represent Poland, the other to represent Palestine. The headmaster stressed that the flag of Israel is at the front next to the American flag.
"Although I cannot discuss the family specifically, I can say that the characterization conveyed was not accurate," Nysmith said in the email to Fox News Digital. "If a family feels that their child cannot go into a gym that has the Palestinian flag in it, that is a problem. If a family cannot work with the school in a collegial, constructive manner, they cannot remain at the school."
In response, Lang told Fox News Digital that "there was no complaint about hanging the Palestinian flag," and that the family's "concern was the school's refusal to address bullying."
"That's what I find most disturbing. It's not difficult, right? Schools are supposed to protect children from being bullied," the family's attorney continued. "We all know that, and we certainly expect our educators to know that. In one of his other public statements, he acknowledged that the school doesn't tolerate hate or harassment or bullying, but then he adds that the events in Gaza raise complex issues. And that's just not true when we're talking about an 11-year-old girl. Schools are supposed to protect children from being bullied. Full stop."
Nysmith also denied he ever told Vazquez and Roy to tell their daughter to "toughen up" – arguing that the allegation "is a lie, pure and bold-faced."
"I have never used that phrase with any child or adult in my life," Nysmith said in an email. "I have three kind and sensitive children, and I would never use that term or anything that conveyed that thought, nor would anyone on our staff."
"We have not seen a rise in antisemitism in the school and have had several of our Jewish families write me since the media blitz to express their support of the school," Nysmith said. "There are certainly sensitivities, just as we had with our Muslim students after 9/11. Our environment is about inclusiveness and acceptance for all. Did the family mention the fundraising of our community for those affected by the October 7th attack? We did."
Nysmith provided a copy of a message the headmaster sent to the school community defending the institution as "proud of the diversity that defines us, our families come from all corners of the world, representing a wide spectrum of cultures, religions, and perspectives." He told the school community, "That diversity can sometimes make our community complicated and emotional, especially during emotional international events such as the October 7th attack and the ongoing violence in Gaza. We have students and families with ties to both sides of that heartbreaking conflict, and we are committed to ensuring that our school remains a safe, respectful, and empathetic space for everyone."
"Children are still learning how to navigate differences and emotions." he wrote. "Sometimes they make mistakes and say unkind things. When this happens, we use this moment to teach. We use those moments to help students understand the impact of their words and actions, to model compassion, and to guide them in building empathy and respectful disagreement."
The complaint alleges that the Nysmith School for the Gifted violated the Virginia Human Rights Act by engaging in unlawful anti-Semitic discrimination and retaliation.
Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares, whose office is investigating the complaint, previously told Fox News that "what's been alleged is beyond disturbing," and, while the lawsuit involves pre-teen students, "the level of harassment of Jewish students on our college campuses is now trickling down to K-12."
"If what's alleged in here, this is true, it absolutely meets that definition of a violation of the Virginia Human Rights Act," Miyares told Fox News last week. "We want every student in Virginia not to be looking over their shoulder in fear. The idea that in any place in Virginia, whether they're, either on a college campus or K-12, if you have a Jewish student who feels they're being harassed, they're incapable of completing their studies because they're being specifically targeted, our job is to make sure these schools are told to stop it and end it."
"I want to be clear: Virginia is not New York," Miyares added. "We have a fantastic governor in Gov. Youngkin, we knew from Day One. We saw those images of what happened at Columbia, and we said that's not going to happen in Virginia. We have a very, very different governor and candidly a very different attorney general than what you have in some of these other states."
"We want to protect our students, and so we have no tolerance for any school, whether it's a college campus or it's K-12, that is specifically targeting Jewish students," he said.