Nysmith School for the Gifted will adopt the IHRA definition of antisemitism and will provide students and staff with antisemitism education

Lexey Swall/GRAIN for The Washington Post via Getty Images

Nysmith School for the Gifted opened in 1983 with 55 children, they now teach more than 600 students ranging from Pre-K to eighth grade.

A private K-8 school in Northern Virginia reached a settlement on Tuesday with the parents of an 11-year-old Jewish student who say their daughter faced months of antisemitic harassment that went unaddressed by school officials.

According to the complaint, filed in July with the Office for Civil Rights in the Virginia Attorney General’s Office by the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights under Law and Washington-based firm Dillon PLLC, the student faced several antisemitic incidents while a student at Nysmith School for the Gifted in Herndon, Va., including a history class where students were asked to work together to create a large drawing featuring the attributes of “strong historical leaders.”

The students collaborated on a large artistic rendering featuring Adolf Hitler’s face. The parents learned of the project only after Nysmith School posted a photo of the children holding up their project, which is reproduced in the complaint. The student was also told that Jews are “baby killers” and that they deserved to die because of the Israel-Hamas war.

Kenneth Nysmith, the headmaster and owner of Nysmith, told the parents to tell their daughter to “toughen up” when they asked the school to take steps to address the bullying, according to the complaint.

Two days later, on March 13, the headmaster sent the parents an email stating all three of their children — a son in the second grade and two daughters in the sixth grade — were expelled effective that same day. The complaint does not address any reason that Nysmith provided for the expulsions but noted that the children had no disciplinary record.

In addition to the harassment, the complaint notes that Nysmith canceled an event featuring a Holocaust survivor due to concerns that the event might exacerbate tensions within the school community related to the Israel-Hamas war.

Under the terms of the settlement, in addition to monetary relief to the family, Nysmith School agreed to establish a committee to review and investigate discrimination complaints — with an independent monitor evaluating the committee’s work. It also agreed to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism and to provide staff with annual antisemitism training and students with annual education on antisemitism and the Holocaust for the next five years.