Harvard-Westlake water polo sex attack scandal include allegations of antisemitism

The Harvard-Westlake water polo player who was accused of racism and sexual assault by a star teammate allegedly told a Jewish peer to “die in an oven,” according to stunning new court documents.

The star teammate, Aidan Romain, revised his lawsuit Thursday against the alleged bigot, Lucca van der Woude, to include the shocking new allegations.

He claimed that an unnamed witness told his attorney, Daniel Watkins, that Van der Woude “had a history of making antisemitic remarks while interacting with peers online and in person” and that he “referred to a Jewish peer using antisemitic slurs and stated words to the effect of: ‘You stupid Jew, die in the oven.’”

The revised suit also dives into other damning allegations against Van der Woude.

The same unidentified witness, later identified as mother Hilary Ketchum by Vanity Fair, said the disgraced polo player “frequently glorified sexual violence against women, made repeated comments referencing rape, regularly used racial slurs, and made offensive comments concerning slavery and racial domination.” 

Van der Woude “expressed racist, antisemitic, and white-nationalist beliefs during the period in which he sexually and physically abused Plaintiff and other students,” according to Vanity Fair.

Watkins believed the lawsuit needed to be revised because of the similarities between white nationalism and sexual violence.  

“White nationalism and sexual violence come from the same belief: that some people exist to be dominated by others. That is what makes these accounts so troubling,” he said.

Other allegations detail how Van der Woude and a teammate whipped Romain with a rope in the school weight room “as if he were a slave” while telling him to “get back to work.”

There’s also accusations that Van der Woude, while playing Minecraft with Ketchum’s son in 2020, used the N-word, made antisemitic remarks, and was heard  “making jokes about women and rape.”

Ketchum and a different parent later requested a Zoom meeting to discuss “slurs that none of us want our kids to be hearing, let alone saying.” A woman with the name of “Nilda Van Der Woude,” the name of Van der Woude’s mother, thanked them for the meeting.

“Thank you for organizing this. It is a wonderful idea and much needed. We will attend,” she said.

Ketchum said she discussed the Holocaust, white privilege, and sexism along with warning the boys that they would not be allowed to play Minecraft together if they continued saying the slurs.

Van der Woude allegedly didn’t heed the advice, and went harder with the slurs.

“[Van der Woude] went not just right back at it, but worse,” she said. “He just kept doing it, and he was laughing, and [the kids] all just stopped playing with him.”

The accused water polo player denies all of the accusations.

“Lucca van der Woude categorically and unequivocally denies each and every allegation made against him,” Van der Woude’s attorney Keith G. Bremer said in a statement to Vanity Fair. “These claims are false. Lucca has conducted himself with integrity throughout his academic and athletic career, and he will not allow false accusations to define him now and/or in the future.”

The new accusations go along with the allegations that Van der Woude sexually assaulted Romain.

Romain said in one instance that while he was eggbeating water, he felt someone grab his buttocks and insert a finger. He looked back and saw Van der Woude.

“I was like, ‘Why did you do that? What are you doing?’” Aidan said. “He just laughed.”

He also Van der Woude “constantly dehumanized” him and used the slur regularly.

“They weren’t trying to hide it,” Aidan said. “When the lights would turn off, they would say, ‘Where’s Aidan?’ or ‘Where’s arbitrary black person?’”

He described the atmosphere as relentless and overtly racist. “It was just straight, blatant racism,” he said.

The elite Harvard-Westlake school has downplayed allegations that the school allowed the conduct to happen.

“Many of you have likely seen recent newspaper and magazine articles describing a lawsuit,” the school’s president said in a recent email to parents, according to Vanity Fair.

“Because this pertains to a pending legal matter, we are limited in what we can say, but we want to be clear about the following: the school unequivocally disputes many of these allegations that mischaracterize facts and the school’s actions.

“The school treated reports of inappropriate behavior in the water polo program with urgency and seriousness, promptly initiating an investigation and complying with its mandatory reporting obligations. The school also cooperated completely with law enforcement.”

“Whatever you might read or hear,” the email continued, “I ask that you place it in the context of what you already know about our school and your child’s experience. I ask that you measure these allegations against your own experience of this community and the values that guide our work.”

Harvard-Westlake, along with Van der Woude, have filed motions in court challenging aspects of Romain’s lawsuit. The school say their president, Rick Commons, was not told Romain was suffering from racial abuse, discrimination, and sexual assault, and therefore is not responsible. 

Van der Woude has moved to strike dozens of the allegations, arguing they were based on confidential juvenile court or educational records.

Download The California Post App, follow us on social, and subscribe to our newsletters