Harvard-Westlake Lawsuit Over Water Polo Sexual Abuse Claims

The Harvard-Westlake water polo lawsuit is a civil case filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on February 27, 2026 by former student Aidan Romain, who alleges that teammates on the elite private school’s boys’ water polo team sexually assaulted, racially abused, and hazed him for nearly two years while coaches and administrators knew and did nothing. The suit names Harvard-Westlake School, its president Richard B. Commons, head water polo coach Jack Grover, and former teammate Lucca van der Woude as defendants.¹

What Romain Says Happened in the Pool and Weight Room

Romain’s complaint says the abuse began in August 2022, during his freshman year, and continued into early 2024. Van der Woude, described in the filing as a star player on the team, allegedly ambushed Romain and digitally penetrated him on multiple occasions in the school pool, elsewhere on campus, and in the weight room.¹

A separate incident in February 2024 involved a second teammate, identified in the complaint only as “BB,” who allegedly cornered Romain in an outdoor shower stall, grabbed his genitals, and struck him repeatedly in the testicles.¹

Romain is not the only alleged victim. A player identified in the complaint as “Victim Two” says van der Woude sexually assaulted him underwater during a December 2023 practice. According to reporting by the Orange County Register, Victim Two and Romain jointly told school deans what had happened, but after four other players denied the incidents, a dean told them the school “could not do anything.”² Victim Two’s attorney, Jessica Pride, told iHeartRadio her client intends to file his own civil suit.³

The Racial Abuse Allegations

Romain, who is Black, alleges a parallel pattern of racial harassment. The complaint says van der Woude and teammate Connor Kim whipped him with a rope and elastic band in the school weight room in what Romain’s lawyers call a “re-enactment of slavery,” telling him to “get back to work.” Teammates allegedly called him a racial slur nearly every day for about five months, mocked his skin color by calling him the team’s “secret weapon” during night games because he was supposedly too dark to be seen, and taunted him about his ancestors having been enslaved.⁴

What Romain Says the School Did and Didn’t Do

The heart of the civil case is the claim that Harvard-Westlake’s administration knew and failed to act. The complaint identifies eight school officials it says were told of sexual or racial misconduct, including Commons, Grover, Athletic Director Matt LaCour, Head of School Laura Ross, and multiple deans.⁴

Romain says he demonstrated the nature of the sexual abuse to Deans Sharon Cuseo and Jordan Church in a December 2023 meeting, and that Assistant Head of School Janine Jones later confirmed by text that the school had received reports of the assault. Even so, the complaint alleges, the school never filed a mandated report with law enforcement or the Department of Child and Family Services. In the three-and-a-half years before these events, the school had reportedly filed 14 mandated reports involving 20 children. For Romain, it filed none.⁴

The suit also alleges the school’s response veered into retaliation. After Romain’s parents reported the February 2024 shower assault, Athletic Director LaCour allegedly suspended Romain himself for four games. Coach Grover, according to the complaint, kept notes about the assaults, but responded to complaints of racial slurs by telling Romain’s parents he chose not to discipline the player involved because the player claimed the slur was “a joke.” Grover is also alleged to have shared the parents’ private complaint letter with the accused students.⁵

The complaint further claims that Harvard-Westlake helped van der Woude transfer to Newport Harbor High School with a clean record by leaving his disciplinary history off official transfer paperwork.¹ Van der Woude went on to lead Newport Harbor to a CIF Southern Section championship. A Newport Harbor public relations officer told the Daily Bruin the school “followed CIF rules” in deeming him eligible.⁶

Athletic Director Terry Barnum, according to the lawsuit, later confirmed to Romain’s parents that Kim and van der Woude admitted to the racial abuse the family had described in an October 2023 letter to the school. After that, the suit says, teammates isolated Romain in the pool, refused to pass him the ball, and yelled at him.⁷

The Criminal Case Against Van der Woude

Van der Woude was arrested by the Los Angeles Police Department on the Harvard-Westlake campus in February 2024.¹ On November 7, 2024, in Los Angeles County Juvenile Division Court, he admitted to sexual penetration with a foreign object against a minor. The court declared him a ward of the court and imposed probationary conditions.⁴ The Orange County Tribune described the admission as covering aggravated sexual battery against two younger male students between September 2022 and December 2023.⁸

On March 17, 2025, the court ordered van der Woude and his parents to pay about $50,000 in restitution to Romain, per the complaint; the Tribune reported the figure as $75,000 to one victim’s family.⁴⁸ The U.S. Center for SafeSport also barred him from participating in water polo activities sponsored by covered entities, pending investigation. The Daily Bruin reported that SafeSport separately opened an investigation into Grover for allegedly failing to report the sexual misconduct, though the paper said it could not independently verify that investigation as of April 2025.⁶

How the Defendants Have Responded

Harvard-Westlake has denied the substance of the lawsuit. In an email to parents, president Rick Commons said the school “unequivocally disputes many of these allegations that mischaracterize facts and the school’s actions” and stated the school had “promptly initiat[ed] an investigation and compl[ied] with its mandatory reporting obligations” while cooperating fully with law enforcement. A school spokesperson called the allegations “a false and sensationalistic narrative” bearing “little-to-no relation to the reality of life at Harvard-Westlake.”⁹ The school has filed a motion challenging portions of the complaint, and a letter from its attorney, referenced in ABC7’s reporting, claims that at no point did Romain’s parents report that their son was a “victim of sexual assault.”¹⁰

Van der Woude, through attorney Keith G. Bremer, has “categorically and unequivocally” denied all civil allegations and called them “false.” He has filed a motion to strike more than 50 allegations from the complaint, arguing that many draw on confidential juvenile-court and educational records.¹¹ A second attorney, Michael Artan, said there were “no witnesses to these claims and there were no complaints for over 18 months.”¹²

Connor Kim is named in the complaint as a co-perpetrator of the racial abuse but is not a defendant. His attorney, Lillian Chu, said the claims against Kim “are false” and that the assertion he admitted wrongdoing “is simply not true.”¹²

Legal Theory and Where the Case Stands

The case is styled as a “Verified Complaint for Personal Injuries and Damages Arising from Childhood Sexual Abuse.” It does not specify a total dollar figure, but states the amount in controversy exceeds the jurisdictional minimum for an unlimited California civil case. It does not invoke Title IX, relying instead on California’s mandatory reporting laws and the school’s duty of care. It also cites the federal Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act of 2022, arguing that any arbitration clause in Romain’s enrollment contract cannot be enforced against claims of this kind.⁴

On June 4, 2026, Romain’s lawyers filed an amended complaint in Los Angeles Superior Court adding allegations from an unnamed witness, including claims that van der Woude had a history of antisemitic remarks and “harbored and expressed racist, antisemitic, and white-nationalist beliefs” during the period at issue.¹³

As of mid-2026, no trial date has been set. Both the school and van der Woude have filed motions challenging portions of the complaint, and Romain has filed the amended complaint expanding the factual allegations. Romain is represented by Scott Adrian of Adrian Law Firm and Daniel P. Watkins of Meier Watkins Phillips Pusch LLP.⁴

1
The Guardian. Water Polo Abuse California School
2
Orange County Register. Water Polo Abuse Allegations Detailed in Civil Suit Filed Against Harvard-Westlake
3
Real 92.3 LA. Ex-Water Polo Player Sues Elite Los Angeles School Over Abuse
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MediaNews Group. Verified Complaint for Personal Injuries and Damages
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Vanity Fair. Water Polo Scandal Harvard-Westlake
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Daily Bruin. UCLA Mens Water Polo Recruit Admits to Aggravated Sexual Battery
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Vanity Fair. Water Polo Scandal Harvard-Westlake
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Tribune. Van der Woude Admits to Aggravated Sexual Battery
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Vanity Fair. Water Polo Harvard-Westlake Lucca Van Der Woude
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ABC7. Former Harvard-Westlake Water Polo Player Files Lawsuit
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Vanity Fair. Water Polo Harvard-Westlake Lucca Van Der Woude
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Vanity Fair. Water Polo Scandal Harvard-Westlake
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Vanity Fair. Water Polo Harvard-Westlake Lucca Van Der Woude