Virginia School Fails History: Never Go the Full Hitler

Let’s try to be fair up front. Education is more an art than a science, and different approaches can yield unexpectedly positive results. With that being said, though — when students begin drawing pictures of Adolf Hitler as a role model for “strong leadership,” you know a school has run off the rails. 

A new lawsuit lodged against the prestigious Nysmith School in Northern Virginia alleges that, and even more. Parents of three students expelled from the tony K-8 in DC’s suburbs allege the school kicked them out for being Jewish and complaining of anti-Semitic harassment. The legal filing includes a picture of the Hitler assignment:

A northern Virginia private school hung up a Palestinian flag in the school gym and taught the kids that H!tler was a “strong historical leader,” before expelling Jewish kids who complained. pic.twitter.com/sSGphCJTk1

— Marina Medvin 🇺🇸 (@MarinaMedvin) July 1, 2025

The Free Beacon”s Adam Kredo picked up the story this morning:

The Nysmith School, known as one of the top 10 institutions in the country for students between kindergarten and eighth grade, allegedly expelled Brian Vazquez and Ashok Roy’s three Jewish children in March, after the parents complained about its “unwillingness to respond to anti-Semitic harassment of their 11-year-old daughter,” according to a copy of the complaint the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law filed with Virginia attorney general Jason Miyares.

The complaint accuses the tony school—a feeder institution for the elite Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Falls Church—of fostering an environment “that is hostile to Jews,” suggesting that the hatred displayed on America’s college campuses has also infected younger students.

The school “allowed anti-Semitism to take root in her class” over the course of several months, including with a social studies project that saw students promote Adolf Hitler as a “strong historical leader.” That project “was shared with the entire school community” and contributed to “a pattern of persistent and severe anti-Semitic harassment,” the complaint alleges.

Bear in mind that lawsuits are allegations, not evidence, and do not include rebuttals from respondents. If Brian Vasquez and Ashok Roy can substantiate their claims, however, this doesn’t look good for Nysmith:

1. On March 13, 2025, Complainants Brian Vazquez and Ashok Roy’s three Jewish children were expelled from the Nysmith School for the Gifted because they complained about the school’s unwillingness to respond to anti-Semitic harassment of their 11-year-old daughter. The school had allowed anti-Semitism to take root in her class—in, for example, this picture of a social studies class project depicting the attributes of a “strong historical leader” … That photo, featuring the unmistakable face of Adolf Hitler, was shared with the entire school community. It was followed by a pattern of persistent and severe anti-Semitic harassment of Complainants’ young daughter.

2. Mr. Vazquez and Dr. Roy notified Kenneth R. Nysmith (“Mr. Nysmith”), the owner and headmaster of The Nysmith School for the Gifted (“Nysmith School”), that their daughter was being harassed and bullied because she is Jewish, including persistent taunting about the October 7, 2023 Hamas terrorist attacks, which resulted in the deaths of over 1,200 Israelis and 251 others being taken hostage, and a campaign of ostracizing her because she is Jewish. Mr. Nysmith promised to take action – but did nothing. A few weeks later, after Mr. Nysmith decided to hang a Palestinian flag in the Nysmith School gym, the harassment of their daughter grew more severe. Complainants notified Mr. Nysmith that harassment of their daughter had become much worse and pleaded for his help. In response, Mr. Nysmith told them to tell their daughter to “toughen up” and abruptly ended the meeting. Two days later, on March 13, 2025, Mr. Nysmith retaliated – notifying Complainants in an email that all three children were expelled effective immediately, days before their mid-semester report cards, and long after the application periods for other local schools had passed. 

“Toughen up”? If that was really Nysmith’s answer to anti-Semitic bullying in his school, he has no business in education. And at least in taking these allegations at face value, Nysmith doesn’t appear to be in that business anyway. It sounds more like he’s in the indoctrination industry, especially if he’s hanging Palestinian flags in a K-8 school in Virginia. What possible reason would there be to hoist the Palestinian flag other than to impress Nysmith’s own political values onto his students, and make clear his hostility to Jewish students?

Of course, Nysmith will have his own version of these events. At some point, the school will have to file a response to the court, or else face a default on the lawsuit. It will be tough to explain how three straight-A students (as per paragraph 11) all got expelled at the same time other than retaliation for the parents’ objections to the politicized and hostile environment Vasquez and Roy claim that Nysmith created. And I’d really like to hear Nysmith’s explanation of this assignment result:

Res ipsa loquitur. Just having students create this image as a positive image of leadership creates a hostile environment based on religion. Private schools may be able to evade some of the Civil Rights Act tenets, but only if they receive no federal funding. However, one has to wonder why other Nysmith families put up with this, unless they too think Hitler was a positive model of strong leadership. Maybe we should ask those parents to explain it as well.

Stay tuned. Thus far the Nysmith school hasn’t responded publicly to these claims, but I’d bet that they will be looking for some way to graciously backpedal and keep the school from a permanent association with Naziism. The schools that normally accept Nysmith’s graduates may be looking to distance themselves from the Adolfs as well. The Louis Brandeis Center is helping to represent the parents in this action, and they’re not going to settle this for a “mistakes were made” apology.

When I first read this story from Marina Medvin’s tweet, the whole strong-leadership excuse tugged at my memory. In the original Star Trek series, the Enterprise stumbles onto a planet where a Federation captain violated the Prime Directive and wanted to make a society more “efficient.” I’d bet Nysmith School for the Gifted had the same idea … and that’s the most generous interpretation of these allegations. From near the end of the episode “Patterns of Force,” season 2, episode 21, the moral of the story is: Never go the full Hitler. Or better yet, don’t go anywhere near Hitler for leadership lessons, especially for elementary-school kids. Sheesh.