A high school athlete has leveled accusations of sexual abuse and racial abuse against his former school, the principal, his team, and one of his former teammates.
According to ABC7, 18-year-old Aidan Romain, a former water polo player at Harvard-Westlake, an elite Los Angeles prep school, has filed a lawsuit alleging that he was completely dehumanized by a teammate named Lucca Van Der Woude.
“The racial abuse and sexual abuse was a daily basis thing,” he said. “It happened in nearly every training; it would happen many times daily, sometimes outside of the pool. So, it was certainly a difficult experience.”
He continued:
“The abuse was not spontaneous. It was part of a years-long culture in which violence and humiliation were normalized and facilitated through the school’s coaching staff and administration.”
Romain says that he was regularly addressed as the n-word and was also physically assaulted as if he were a “slave.”
“The complaint walks through a myriad of allegations of racial abuse ranging from Aidan being called the N-word to being literally whipped with exercise bands in the weight room supposedly re-enacting slavery,” said attorney Daniel Watkins, who represents Romain in the lawsuit.
Romain also says that Van Der Woude would sexually assault him while they were underwater together. For their part, the school released a public statement dodging any remote sense of accountability.
“Harvard-Westlake will not offer specific comment other than to say that it unequivocally disputes many of these allegations that mischaracterize facts and the school’s actions,” read the statement.
“The school treated reports of inappropriate behavior in its water polo program with urgency and seriousness, promptly initiating an investigation and complying with its mandatory reporting obligations.“
Harvard-Westlake says they complied fully with law enforcement’s questions and won’t be speaking on the matter any further.
They’d better hope there aren’t receipts because settling a lawsuit like this could get very, very expensive.
