Fairfax County parents spoke up about antisemitic bullying. They say it got their kids expelled

Three kids who attended a Fairfax County private school were expelled after their parents complained about antisemitic bullying according to a new complaint filed with the Virginia Attorney General s office In the -page filing Brian Vazquez and Ashok Roy reported their -year-old daughter faced antisemitic harassment at The Nysmith School for the Gifted They learned about it when one of her classmates advised his parents Their complaint alleges they urged the head of the school to intervene but that nothing was done to address the bullying Kenneth Nysmith head of the school declared the accusations are false Earlier this year the parents learned other kids in their daughter s class called Jews baby killers according to legal documents They stated their daughter was notified that all Jews deserve to die because of the war in Gaza The claims are described as a violation of Virginia s Human Rights Act When the parents spoke to Nysmith about the alleged bullying they mentioned Nysmith vowed to handle the issue swiftly But the complaint explained nothing happened The parents alleged the school put up a Palestinian flag in its gym After that the parents explained Nysmith that the bullying and harassment became worse but the head of school just informed their daughter to toughen up before ending the meeting On March Nysmith stated the parents in an email that all three of their children would be expelled promptly In that email Nysmith wrote that after reflecting on our emotional conversation on Tuesday the words used make it clear that you have a profound lack of trust in both me and the school In our meeting I felt very clearly that you do not think Nysmith is the right school for your family and the longer we try to ignore that reality the more pain it will cause your children Nysmith wrote in the email Jeffrey Lang senior litigation counsel with the Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law which filed the complaint announced the kids loved the school and the parents were progressing in the school district They had already paid for tuition for the following year at the time they were described not to return Lang explained The kids were just devastated Lang declared They have lost their sense of confidence their sense of shield They kept asking what they had done wrong and whether if they apologized to the headmaster of the school they d be allowed to go back Nysmith declined an interview request from WTOP but announced in an email that the assertions are untrue The school s attorney was briefed on all the details of the occurrence and agreed they needed to be removed from the school he stated In a comment Nysmith revealed the school celebrates the diversity of its scholar body doesn t tolerate hate or harassment and is focused on supporting students and region members With that diversity however comes complexity Nysmith declared The global events that shape our world specifically the ongoing conflict in Gaza can and does impact our students and their families in very personal emotional methods We have families at Nysmith on both sides of the conflict The complaint includes an image that it considers proof that the school allowed antisemitism in the girl s classroom The school commented the image has been misrepresented Courtesy Office of the Attorney General Commonwealth of Virginia Office of Civil Rights The complaint includes an image that it considers proof that the school allowed antisemitism in the girl s classroom The picture appears to show Adolf Hitler and was followed by a pattern of persistent and severe antisemitic harassment of Complainants young daughter However Nysmith revealed the image has been misrepresented The project he explained in a declaration was based on Niccolo Machiavelli s The Prince Students were tasked with identifying and analyzing the trains of positive and negative leaders Students were assigned different body parts to create a symbolic composite leader ' Nysmith disclosed One limb included an image of Hitler another included President Obama The purpose of the exercise was not to glorify any historical figure but to foster critical thinking and discussion around the characteristics of leadership through history The inclusion of controversial figures was meant to provoke analysis not admiration Moving forward Nysmith revealed the school will increase oversight of children s projects Meanwhile Lang stated a resolution to the complaint would be for the school to apologize and then add a definition of antisemitism to its nondiscrimination policies and to make meaningful change to ensure this and other forms of bullying don t persist in the future Source