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An exclusive high-end private school in the Los Angeles area has been rocked by a lawsuit alleging that three water polo teammates, including a star player who is the son of a well-known film director, racially and sexually abused a teammate for years.
The civil lawsuit filed by Aidan Romain, who was a minor and water polo player at the swanky Harvard-Westlake School at the time of the alleged incidents, says he was repeatedly subjected to persistent racist and sexual misgivings at the hands of his teammates.
One teammate, Lucca Van Der Woude, is named in the lawsuit, along with the school itself, school president Richard B. Commons and boys water polo program head Jack Glover. Van Der Woude is the son of Thomas “Basti” Van Der Woude, a high-profile Hollywood assistant director of shows including “Fear the Walking Dead,” “Westworld,” and current hit “Ballard.”
Harvard-Westlake School on Coldwater Canyon in Studio City, CA, on Thursday, July 13, 2023. (Dean Musgrove/Los Angeles Daily News via Getty Images)
The younger Van Der Woude is considered a top Olympic prospect, and at one point was a prized recruit to play water polo at UCLA, one of the most elite college programs in the country. It is unclear what his present recruitment status is with the team, but the lawsuit against him alleges shocking behavior.
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“From August 2022 until February 2024, Plaintiff Aidan Romain (then a minor) was sexually assaulted, harassed, and humiliated primarily by three Harvard-Westlake water polo teammates – often in the presence of Harvard-Westlake agents and employees,” the lawsuit begins.
The lawsuit says that in 2022, Romain was the only freshman to make the varsity water polo team at Harvard-Westlake, but that abuse at the hands of Van Der Woude began during his very first practice, when the defendant allegedly “digitally penetrated” him underwater.
“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,” the suit says. “At Harvard-Westlake, sexualized misconduct was treated as ritual, and silence was the price of inclusion. Speaking out was betrayal and survival meant staying quiet.”
Harvard-Westlake School on Coldwater Canyon in Studio City, CA, on Thursday, July 13, 2023. (Dean Musgrove/Los Angeles Daily News via Getty Images)
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According to the lawsuit, Romain was also subject to use of the “N word” consistently.
In another “disturbing display of racism,” Van Der Woude and another teammate who is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit allegedly “began whipping Plaintiff with a rope and then an elastic band, making references to slavery as they demanded that Plaintiff ‘get back to work!’ while striking Plaintiff.”
Van Der Woude was arrested in 2024 and later admitted in juvenile court to “‘sexual penetration with a foreign object (digital penetration) against a minor’ as part of a plea agreement with prosecutors,” according to the suit. In February 2025, he was ordered to pay $50,000 in restitution to Romain.
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The suit claims Harvard-Westlake, which costs $54,900 to attend, knew of the abuse, but failed to act.
The Weddington Golf & Tennis club is set to close permanently months after Harvard-Westlake officials announced the school was buying the facility from the Weddington family, on Aug. 2, 2019. (David Crane/MediaNews Group/Los Angeles Daily News via Getty Images)
Romain now reportedly lives in Barcelona, where he continues to train.
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“It was very difficult on a daily basis to deal with the racial abuse and the sexual abuse,” he told ABC7 in March.
Fox News Digital reached out to Van Der Woude’s attorney and Harvard-Westlake for comment.
Harvard-Westlake previously denied the allegations.