A highschool athlete has leveled accusations of sexual abuse and racial abuse towards his former faculty, the principal, his crew, and one in all his former teammates.
In line with ABC7, 18-year-old Aidan Romain, a former water polo participant at Harvard-Westlake, an elite Los Angeles prep faculty, has filed a lawsuit alleging that he was utterly dehumanized by a teammate named Lucca Van Der Woude.
“The racial abuse and sexual abuse was a each day foundation factor,” he mentioned. “It occurred in almost each coaching; it might occur many occasions each day, typically outdoors of the pool. So, it was actually a tough expertise.”
He continued:
“The abuse was not spontaneous. It was a part of a years-long tradition through which violence and humiliation had been normalized and facilitated by the varsity’s teaching employees and administration.”
Romain says that he was frequently addressed because the n-word and was additionally bodily assaulted as if he had been a “slave.”
“The grievance walks by a myriad of allegations of racial abuse starting from Aidan being known as the N-word to being actually whipped with train bands within the weight room supposedly re-enacting slavery,” mentioned lawyer Daniel Watkins, who represents Romain within the lawsuit.
Romain additionally says that Van Der Woude would sexually assault him whereas they had been underwater collectively. For his or her half, the varsity launched a public assertion dodging any distant sense of accountability.
“Harvard-Westlake won’t provide particular remark aside from to say that it unequivocally disputes many of those allegations that mischaracterize details and the varsity’s actions,” learn the assertion.
“The college handled stories of inappropriate conduct in its water polo program with urgency and seriousness, promptly initiating an investigation and complying with its necessary reporting obligations.“
Harvard-Westlake says they complied absolutely with regulation enforcement’s questions and gained’t be talking on the matter any additional.
They’d higher hope there aren’t receipts as a result of settling a lawsuit like this might get very, very costly.
