The Nysmith School, a private institution in Herndon, Va., agreed to pay Jewish parents $100,000 and legal fees up to another $46,000 to settle a lawsuit alleging that headmaster Ken Nysmith expelled three siblings after their parents complained about one, their 11-year-old daughter, being subject to antisemitic harassment at the school.
“Combating antisemitism is a top priority for my office. Every child deserves to learn in an environment free from hate, intimidation or fear,” stated Jason Miyares, the Virginia attorney general. “No child should feel unsafe or unwelcome in a classroom in Virginia, and no parent should fear retaliation for defending their child.”
“I am glad the parties could come to an amicable resolution,” he stated.
The family filed the complaint with the state’s civil rights office, which “issued a charge of discrimination against the school on July 29, 2025 alleging that peers derided the student for being ‘Israeli,’ called Jews ‘baby killers’ while looking at her and taunted her about the death of her uncle, saying that they were glad he died in the Oct. 7 attack, even though he had died years earlier,” Miyares’s office said.
“The charge alleged that the parents reported the antisemitic harassment to the headmaster and within two days, they received an email expelling all three of their children,” the office said.
The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law said that the settlement it reached with the school on behalf of its clients calls on the school to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of Jew-hatred and to form a panel to investigate alleged discrimination and to offer advice on discipline.
The parents had expressed concern that their daughter was being subjected to antisemitic bullying, and that the school had canceled its annual Holocaust survivor speaker program and raised a Palestinian flag alongside an Israeli flag and other flags at the gym, per the complaint.
The headmaster commits to the settlement to issue a statement of regret for expelling the students and creating a hostile environment against Jews.
“Justice has been served for our clients’ family,” stated Kenneth L. Marcus, founder and chairman of the Brandeis Center and a former U.S. assistant secretary of education for civil rights. “The resulting actions underway at Nysmith School will help prevent this kind of discrimination from happening to others.”
