The Water Polo Scandal That Rocked L.A.’s Most Elite Private School
One of the many painful outcomes, Aidan says, was that while his former teammates were admitted to play water polo at schools like Stanford, Harvard, and UCLA, he met with multiple Division I colleges only to find some of the coaches asking him to explain his actions at Harvard-Westlake. “All the schools I visited, I had to explain in detail what happened because they all had heard some form of lie about me, including that I had been arrested or I had ruined another player’s life,” he says. “After I sent them my impact statement in the hopes that they would be more comfortable recruiting me.”Aidan reluctantly decided to take a gap year. In August of 2025, he started with the Spanish pro club CN Mataró, which makes him the youngest American player in the team’s history. In February of this year, he was at last able to verbally commit to an Ivy League school. He says he’s “extremely excited” that he has a coach who is willing to believe in him.Of course, water polo is a small community, and, starting in the fall of 2027, he’ll be back in the thick of it. Aidan says he’s unphased. “The people who blame me for having been sexually assaulted and hate me for standing up for myself will still do that,” he says. “I am focusing on joy and all of the wonderful people who are supporting me.”Just after New Year’s Day, I spoke with the Romains over a Zoom call. They were gathered in their apartment in Barcelona, looking happy and relaxed. Both kids can speak Spanish now. They’re hopeful about the future, though the past has left scars. Later, Alex tells me that Aidan is working with a therapist to address what allegedly occurred while he was at Harvard-Westlake.Victim Two says he is still playing water polo and processing his own disappointment. “Going into the school, I thought it was a diverse community and inclusive,” he says. “Even the booklet I got before attending the school had all these words like integrity, diversity, inclusiveness…But apparently, if you’re [a] minority, you’re not really viewed as [being as] valuable as others.”He adds that if he had done what he and Aidan allege Van der Woude did, he would have been kicked out of school or worse. “Arrested, put in jail, on the spot, no questions asked,” he says. “That’s how I feel.”While interviewing Victim Two and Aidan, I’m struck by their idealism. Neither of them speaks the cynical language of lawsuits, reputation management, and retribution. Instead, they seem to be longing for a mea culpa from the school they loved. “I thought that there was somebody at that place that would have my back, that would care,” Aidan says. “But there wasn’t. There was no support. It didn’t get better for me.”In September 2025, Harvard-Westlake dropped from the 11th-best private high school in the country to number 40, according to Niche, a site that ranks K–12 schools and colleges. (Back in 2023, it was ranked number two.) Niche grades schools according to various factors, including the percentage of seniors who go on to attend four-year colleges, along with survey responses on school culture, diversity, and the overall experience of students and parents. The site releases some, but not all, survey results online.
